You see, they are (still) having an “early bird” sale of 25% off the price. However, while trying to check out, I found out that the price was magically increased one more time by the addition of an extra 24% VAT tax (which you might miss if not careful when checking out).

Wait, what? VAT tax? Of 24%? There must be some error here. Why should a Romanian resident need to pay Romanian-level VAT for a product purchased from outside of Romania? This is actually a common occurrence, and I had met it more than once. But let’s talk about this case only.

First of all, if  RubyMotion’s seller were a US company and not a EU one, there probably shouldn’t be any VAT tax charged at all.

Let’s assume for a second that the seller were indeed a EU company and I, as a EU citizen, should indeed have to pay VAT for my purchase. As many big companies know, one needs to pay VAT at the amount existent in the country where the product was sold in. If I travelled to France and buying a computer, I’d need to pay the French VAT amount and not the Romanian one. Similarly, for internet purchases of products and services, the VAT being charged is the one from the seller’s country and not the buyer’s(which would be extremely messy to keep track of) and is the reason(I think) why many of Apple’s and Google’s payments to developers are being sent from Luxembourg, where VAT rates are lower. And they are lower than the required 24% in a lot of EU countries. So I was actually being charged the VAT level from the buyer’s country of residence, despite the law(as much as I know of it) asking that I’d be charged the VAT level of the online seller’s one.

So why were RubyMotion trying to squeeze more money from me than legally required? I noticed the checkout page url was actually of a 3rd party, FastSpring, who seem to be a payment fulfillment of sorts, used by a lot of websites. Since they most likely(I’d bet money on it) don’t have a delivery server physically located in Romania, there is no law binding them to charge me an extra 24% out of every purchase. Still, they do so, although(and I’m also willing to bet on it) they aren’t forwarding the extra VAT money to the developer, and are probably paying a much lower VAT amount(if any) to the government, since they are probably located in a country with lower VAT than Romania’s rather big one.

Summing up this story, I think it says: a company uses a e-commerce engine from a 3rd party. The 3rd party charges customers way more than required, claiming to be for VAT purposes. But they don’t actually need to pay VAT for the purchase, except for some very small cases. What’s left is a huge amount of money that the 3rd party ends up with, which they won’t give to the developer because it’s not “product price” nor to the government because it’s not required by the law.

Or maybe I got it wrong and one informed reader will point out that am missing something fundamental to the law,  and the Romanian government actually gets its fair share of VAT from my online purchases. It would be awesome and am looking forward for it. Anyone?

Oh, and my purchase? I guess I’ll skip this one – it’s way too annoying to have to pay more than legally required, only because of a seemingly merchant error.

Get it now from the AppStore!

PS. I haven’t forgotten about my promise to blog about my trip – but I can’t find the time to do this, ass there are so many things to see around here.

Now, Singapore. The most modern and civilized city I ever laid eyes on. With Changi being the best airport in the world (according to airports awards it has got). We were nervous at first about entering the country, having read all those warnings concerning fines, jail time and even death penalty for various crimes, minor or major – but apparently there was nothing to be afraid of. Everyone was great, airport staff extremely friendly, signs aplenty, etc.

The hotel: turns out that what I had thought to be a hotel was in fact a hostel, with the smallest 2 bunk beds room I ever slept in – I have closets bigger than it. No window, no space for two people to stand up, no closet or wardrobe or even a coat hanger. But it was clean, had air conditioning, private bathroom(no towels, though) and two lockable drawers and had a reasonably central position. It cost double than the 4-star hotel I’ve stayed at in Bangkok two years ago, but was among the budget-priced ones in Sg. What else can I say: very minimalist yet decent looking, with very friendly staff and a good free wifi connection.

As I said, Singapore:
Impressive skyscrapers with great design. Lots of gardens everywhere, including terraces. Lots of heat and humidity. Tall trees, lots of equatorial flowers, almost everything was spotless clean, even around construction sites(where they were building more skyscrapers). Almost everybody speaks English – which is the second language on all signage(the first being Chinese, the others I don’t quite know). People were very polite, a young fellow even offered me his seat in the MRT(their subway), so I could sit next to Vio. Thanks, guy.

Did I say it is extremely modern and civilized? I mean it: 90 percent of all people had iPhone 4 or iPhone 4s or 4G iPads which they used all the time on the MRT, in malls or even on the road – yes, I once saw a guy crossing the street headphones in ear while typing an email on his iPad. I also saw a few HTC’s and one Galaxy Note. Singapore loves Apples

And the food. We ate a lot of food. Didn’t get to try the famous chili crab, but I had a great Soup Tulang on the first evening(if I get the name right – I can’t check it right now) in a nearby hawker center(a food court, only cheaper and less pretentious looking, and the kind of place where ordinary locals eat). Google it.

Other foods we ate include Laksa(somewhat similar to the hot Tom Yum thai soup, but different tasting), Hokkien Mee and many others whose names we didn’t catch.
What we did and saw? We walked all the way to Marina Bay, on a long route that also led to the front of the Parliament, took lots of photos with the Merlion and all the cool looking buildings, circled Marina Bay in a failed attempt to eat to the East Coast hawker center(apparently famous for the aforementioned crab) and instead got to the Marina Bay Shopping Center. Oh, and on the way we were asked(and agreed to) appear in the group photos of several Indonesian school students on a trip. They were all quite excited to take pictures with us(and we, like any celebrity couple, graciously agreed ). They didn’t know, however, where Romania is, and the only European country they knew of was England – so I explained that Romania was around 2000 km to the east of it (I would have said 3000 but didn’t want to scare them)

By noon(after two sleepless nights) we were already dead tired and barely breathing from the equatorial heat, so we did a bit of mall-hopping in search of air conditioning. We also managed to see a bit of Orchard Road, the shopping center of this most incredibly shopping-passionate country. If only we had been less tired, and with fuller bank accounts
What else? Little India, Arab quarter, Singapore Airport, eating at the cheap and really great airport staff cafeteria(thanks to Lonely Planet for the tip), some rest in the great free lounges and .. that was it with Singapore.
Indonesia, here we come!

For the next few weeks I probably will blog a bit more, but not about technology, apps, Apple or iOS development. Instead, I’ll switch to personal/travel blogging mode, trying to narrate as much and as well as possible my vacation.
Because in a couple of hours from now, me and my dear wife are starting yet another backpacking adventure in South East Asia(long term readers might remember our one month in Thailand from two years ago).
This time we’re trying an experiment even more difficult. We’re planning on spending a comparable amount of time(26 days, give or take) in Singapore and Indonesia – actually a couple of days in Singapore, followed by a few weeks in Indonesia, in the Bali and Lombok islands, to be exact.
Why the more difficult experiment?

• First of all, because both countries are usually more expensive for the average backpacker than the backpack-friendly Thailand. Also, the flight to there cost more. Yet, we’ll be trying to have as much fun as possible given our not-so-generous budget(which I’ll disclose at the end of the trip).
• Secondly, we’re packing lighter – the two tiny backpacks above are all we’re taking with us. It’s an experiment I hope won’t give us too much trouble.
• Last but not the least, this time I won’t take my laptop with me. It will be the first time since 1997(when I got my first desktop computer) when I’ll spend more than 4 days in a row without a computer. Actually, scratch that. I’m lying – I’m taking with me 3(!) computers: my iPhone 4s, my iPad2 and my Kindle 4. But no laptop. And that’s the first time since 2003 when I won’t have a laptop around for more than 3 days in a row. That still counts, right? Welcome to the post-PC era.

I said I won’t talk about iPhone app development, but I’m lying again: there’s one extra reason this trip frightens me: for the past month I’ve worked hard to develop the most awesome update yet to my flagship app, Self Help Classics. It has a great new UI(inspired slightly by Instapaper and iBooks), a great reading experience due to new fonts and cleaner Interface, awesome new features, extra content (some free, some available as in-app-purchases) and is designed for retina devices. You can read more about it on selfhelpapp.com.
What it doesn’t have yet is an approval from the AppStore review team. I really tried to submit it earlier than my leaving on the trip, but it was way too big a project. So, here I am, waiting for this update to be approved and praying it won’t get rejected because of a stupid bug or Apple policy change. Like I said above, I won’t be carrying a laptop with me – so I won’t be able to fix any bug for a long, long time.

That was it. A too long post for any human to bear reading. So, sorry.
PS. This post was written from my iPad – as a trial run.
PPS. Future posts might have some Romanian fragments inside – to make it easier for my parents to follow.

Last summer I had played with Android development, coding a small free quiz app. Since Google is too lazy or unwilling to let Romanian developers distribute paid apps in the Android Market, that app could only be monetized by Admob – and has brought, therefore, a total revenue of 35 US cents in over 7 months.
Back in February I learned about BlackBerry’s awesome marketing gimmick – to give a free PlayBook to each developer who submitted a PlayBook app to BlackBerry’s app store, before a deadline. It was the second take of a similar previous offer of theirs, only this time with a twist – because of the Android Player built in the new PlayBook OS 2.0, one could actually submit existing Android apps.
Porting my quiz app to PlayBook and submitting it to AppWorld took around 5 hours, including testing it in the provided PlayBook simulator, changing the UI to make it more visually appealing and creating the marketing material.
The tablet arrived a few weeks later, delivered to my door by FedEx, all expenses paid. I’ve been playing with it occasionally for the past 3 weeks, whenever my new iPad was otherwise busy. It’s now time for a review.

Hardware

Pros:
Against my expectations, a 7 inch tablet is quite useful for many scenarios. It is a great form factor for handheld gaming (comfortable enough to be held in one hand, yet large enough to be able to hold it in both hands), watching videos by yourself and reading ebooks in the Kindle app(more about that later). The 9.7 inch of the iPad is way better for most other uses: also watching videos, reading Pdf books, browsing the web, using any other screen-hungry apps.
Casual use is comfortable, the 1GB or RAM, 16 GB of storage space and the 1GHz processor are pulling their weight.
Cons:
Although Wikipedia says it’s lighter and almost as thin as the iPad(at least the 1st gen), it certainly doesn’t feel so. It seems heavier – but it might just be denser.

Operating System

Pros:
The OS is elegant and, as weird as it seems at first, you get used quickly to the bezel gestures(swipe down from the top bezel to reveal the app’s contextual menu, swipe up from the bottom one to see the app switched and the dock, swipe from the right/left ones to switch among opened apps). It IS a good mobile OS and, although my experience with Android is limited, I prefer it – it’s an OS that my parents will be able to understand and maybe even get comfortable with (yes, this is my usability benchmark).
Cons:
Booting up takes ridiculous amount of time – even longer than Windows booting up. I prefer never to have to shut the tablet down.
UI still needs good designers – apps icons are too large, there is not enough text and icon aliasing, some interactive elements are difficult to touch(the Browser’s address bar, for instance). Also, on occasions, WiFi will disconnect and won’t reconnect until I reboot the router. It might be caused by an incompatibility with some settings in the router, but it’s still a bug.

Software

Pros:
The tablet came with several great apps bundled on, in addition to the pretty good ones included in the OS(the Weather app and the Calculator are quite good) – Facebook and Twitter clients. There are also some great full games which are free on the AppWorld(a promotional offer from BlackBerry, from what I understand) – Need For Speed Undercover, Asphalt Adrenaline or Modern Combat. I’m not a hard core gamer so I only opened them briefly, but as far as I’ve seen they look great.
Now that there is Android compatibility of some kind(developers still need to convert apps from the .apk to the .bar format), the number of apps on the AppWorld is booming. There already are versions of Cut the Rope, Plants vs Zombies, Angry Birds, Machinarium or Carcassonne, and probably more will appear.
Cons:
However, there are some big apps missing, and no sign of them – Skype and Yahoo Messenger being the most notable absents. What use is the pretty good front-facing camera(3MP), when you can only use it for video chatting with other PlayBook owners? I really wanted a cross-tablet communication solution, and Skype would have been the best fit. Sadly, there’s no such app and I have yet to find a working alternative.
The Mail app is ok, but could use some improvements – it lacks advanced features such as downloading previous messages on the server, or sending attachments locally towards external apps.

Extra

A big plus is the ability to sideload apps on the Playbook. That is, to download apps on the computer from non official sources and upload them to the tablet. This, combined with piracy, makes it possible to fill the tablet with a considerable number of games and apps, either cracked native versions, or converted ones from the Android Market. Unfortunately, BlackBerry has announced that the next OS update will disable this feature, so you might want to restrain from updating to it.
Another cool feature is the ability to connect to the tablet from the local network and get read-write access to its folders. This, combined with the previous one, is how I got the Kindle app for Android installed on the Playbook, and how I uploaded non-DRM .mobi ebooks into it. Looks good.

Conclusions

PlayBook is now selling for $200 – that is, the same price as the Kindle Fire (which is slightly heavier, thicker, smaller and with half the storage space and RAM memory – and doesn’t have a camera). If I was looking for a tablet in this price range, the PlayBook would be the winner. Sure, Fire has the advantage of a built-in App Marketplace and integration with Amazon ebooks, videos and music stores. But if you don’t buy many of these from Amazon, you should probably go for the PlayBook. If only it also had Skype…

Developer’s conclusions

I am not considering app development for this device in the near future. After all, its sales numbers haven’t been great so far – so the iPad remains my main focus. Later on, however, I might consider porting my existing mobile apps to it – like I said, I do like the hardware and software. Let’s just hope it won’t flop any time soon.

When did I get it?
As promised by Apple, on the 23rd of March. It was a shock for everyone that Apple really kept their word on the international release date – unlike their previous device launches, there were indeed enough iPads in stock to make sure early risers could get one.

How much did it cost?
Although there is no official Apple store in this small part of Europe, prices at authorized Apple sellers had been set up by Apple – the 16GB Wifi cost 2199 RON, which is 501 Euros, which is 668 USD. Significantly more than in the US, but a comparable price with the rest of EU prices (12euros more, probably due to VAT difference). This is the first time Apple does this, and I hope it won’t be the last – I’m sick and tired of Romanian prices for Apple products being 30-50% more than elsewhere.

Which model did I buy?
I had initially wanted to get a 4G one with a larger capacity, aiming to turn it into my main mobile device. But eventually I chickened out and went for the cheapest version I could get, justifying the purchase as an investment – I do need the latest iOS devices at hand, if I am to develop apps for them. I also hope that future versions will add better battery life on top of the extraordinary screen.

Actual review points:
Introduction:
I have owned an original 16GB iPad Wifi from april 2010 till february 2012, when I sold it and got an almost new but second hand 16GB iPad 2 Wifi. My reasoning for this was that, as much as I loved the iPad 1, there was no doubt that iPad 2 was better and I wanted to two iPads in the house – one for development, one for daily use, and I knew I’d also end up buying the iPad 3. So the math fit.

Now, the iPad 2 is a huge improvement over the iPad 1. That extra RAM size and processor speed makes a ton of difference. The slimmer and lighter device feels like a different thing altogether, one that you actually enjoy holding.

New iPad 3 versus iPad 2:

• Slightly thicker(like 0.5 mm) and 50-60 grams heavier. It is very little, but after a bit of getting used to the iPad 2, you can’t help but feel it as a minor step back.
• Being slightly thicker has an advantage: the connecting cable goes in easier. For the iPad 2, I really have to struggle to make it fit in the awkwardly oriented slot
• The screen is amazing, indeed. You don’t quite notice at first, and most casual users probably won’t. They will, however, notice it when they try to go back to an older iPad (or other tablet, as a matter of fact) – what used to look ok before they met iPad new, now looks blurry and eye-straining
• The iPad 3, with its great screen, makes reading pdfs an almost organic pleasure.
  For the past 2 years I’ve been doing more and more serious reading on the iPad. I love to use it for reading comic books, software programming books, photography books and other nonfiction. I do have a Kindle and think it’s great for “normal” books – but it can’t show you picture-rich books or any other non-flowing format. For these, the iPad is the best device ever invented – the perfect screen size and format. If you don’t already have an iPad, you should get an old one for a small price, if only just for reading pdf books and comics. You can’t have these on a Kindle – not even Kindle Fire would work as a pdf/comics reader, because of the small screen size.
• battery issues? So far I didn’t have any. The iPad charges as I’d expect it to. I usually put it to charge during the night, using its own charger (not the iPhone one). It works.
• overheating? No overheating. Sure, it gets warmer than the iPad 2 during normal games, but it’s still cooler than the iPad 1. Also, like I mentioned, I use it mostly for web browsing and reading – and for these, it manages to remain cool

Conclusions
Highly recommended. If you don’t have an iPad yet but have the budget, you should get the new one. If you don’t have the budget, I bet you can get a used iPad 2 for $200-$300, and you should definitely get one – has almost the same internals as the new one, with the exception of the great screen. It’s the greatest device you could have. As for iPad 1, it is still highly usable – just not for the latest games. An used iPad 1 is likely to cost less than a new Kindle Fire or other competing tablets, and it’s definitely better than any of them.

PS. I also currently have a Blackberry Playbook – but I guess I’ll blog about it at a later time.

Thing is, there is no universal definition for a successful career. At times, peer pressure might make you feel that the money in your pocket is a good metric of it, and for some it actually is. But it's not enough. You will discover that short-term financial success can sometimes prevent long term one. Or that blindly looking for financial success might prevent achieving personal success and happiness.

Some general advice

1. Invest in yourself and in your skills. Skills, knowledge and experience remain with you, while material possessions can be lost, stolen or will eventually get old and out of fashion.

   Out of the things I learned in high school, the most useful for my future were:

   • a. language proficiency: if you aren't a native English speaker, then achieving English mastery is probably the best investment in your future. Knowing to speak and write good English in addition to your main occupation can boost your career or open up new opportunities. If you are a native speaker, fluency in a different language(Spanish, Chinese, French, German, etc) will help you stand out from your peers
   • b. there's no time like high school for developing your intellect, culture and general knowledge – fields usually ignored when we get hooked to the online world. Solid general knowledge will make you look smart(as long as you aren't being smug) which in turn will make people admire you more(helpful both in personal life – such as when flirting with the opposite sex and also in your career). Basic geography, arts, history, literature, sciences or maths will be needed all through your life – the sooner you know them, the better you'll be.
   • c. learn to write, to express yourself using words on paper (or screen): not only in Facebook comments, but as essays and longer articles. You'll definitely need these skills in the future when writing emails, reports or business letters. You can also use them to make extra money. Journalists aren't the only ones getting paid for their writings: so are book authors, bloggers or copyrighters in ad agencies.
   • d. computer literacy: no longer a "nice to have" but a "must". Stop using that computer only for games, emails, messaging or Facebook flirts – learn to use it as the valuable tool it is. You should be able to learn unknown software, search and find obscure information, centralize results in spreadsheets, use software tools to communicate, create and organize. Learn how computers work, what an operating system is, how programs are written, how a web page is created and where it lives. It's knowledge that people in this age are required to know, in order to comprehend what's happening around them.
   • e. invest in your future: great academic results will help you get to a good college. Try to earn scholarships to foreign countries – living, studying or working abroad is among the best investments towards your personal development you can make.

2. Do as many things as you can, try out new skills and hobbies. There is so much more to life than you know right now; without knowing, you might be the worlds best magician, scuba diver or astronomer; maybe one day you'll discover you love to cook and decide to quit your "normal" job in order to start your own restaurant; or that you can make a living as a cartoonist. Even if you don't decide to change your job later in life, having hobbies and various interests is a great thing – you should be more than your job – you should a person, and an interesting one.

3. Never forget to explore. Discover what you love to do, and try to get better at it. Not all jobs are well paid, and definitely not all of them are fun. Eventually you'll want to find a way do what you love and earn your living doing it. For instance, if you love drawing but aren't successful as a painter, you might consider a day job as a graphic designer, still doing what you love but also being paid for it.

Actual computer-related advice

That's enough generalities – you wanted actual advice to prepare for a career in programming and/or making money with computers

First of all, know this: if you love computers, you will probably hang around them even if your college degree doesn't say so. I know philosophy, journalism or finance graduates who make money from software and online products. So don't sweat it too much, and if you want to learn anything else you can still do it. Just keep in mind that if you really love to do something, you should try to become better at it as soon as possible – it might make you richer than you've ever dreamed (just ask Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and others).

Whatever your future, there are some skills you should learn that will make you a better computer geek, with a more valuable skill-set. This is my personal vision and it's not in sync with what you'll read on most current job requirements. They also don't apply to those highly paid computer specialists that create really cool things, but to the large mass of computer programmers and other computer geeks.

1. Non-programming: just like for general advice below, you should diversify your skills. Learn the basics of productivity, good photography, design or usability. Try to learn to use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or their various alternatives. You can also learn to create music or other forms of digital art. Even if you don't become a professional designer, you will still find uses for these skills. Or, at least, they make for cool hobbies.

2. Learn more than one programming language: there are good or bad languages to start programming with. I recommend learning programming with Processing – a simple language with very low friction(you can quickly install it, play with it and see results) and quite similar to other languages (Java, Javascript, C/C++), which will ease the transition to them. There are some cool languages that will make you feel good and make you a better programmer – like Python or Ruby. Or some hot ones that will help you get a job quickly – Javascript, Java and Objective C.

3. Learn to program: by programming I mean being able to implement algorithms(search algorithms, sorting, etc). You should have a good understanding of functions, pointers(what they are, how they work), data structures(arrays, matrices, maybe lists). You should also how object-oriented programming works and how to use it in your language of choice.

4. Learn to develop software. Writing a program that adds a+b is easy. Writing a calculator app with a graphic user interface and even a scientific entry mode is a slightly more complex task. Writing a web-based software app that lets people make friends, post messages, comment on others postings, upload images and do this while handling hundreds of millions of users is an incredibly complex task – which surpasses the skills of any single person.
   Software development is more than knowing the language and how to program. Software, in my definition, refers to complex programs: programs that involve multiple source files and resources, multiple developers, and that do more than a basic function. Learn to use other people's code, learn to interface with it, learn to work in teams, learn to fix bugs, etc. There is a lot to learn, and it never ends (which is also why software development is very often a cool and exciting job).

Making money

If you follow the above, you should now be on your way towards a career as a freelancer (working for others on a per-project basis) or employee (working for others for an undetermined period). I don't need to explain how you can become an employee – find a job posting, answer it, repeat until you are hired. For freelancing, you need to find clients(either online on freelance-related websites or offline, through word of mouth) and do good work for them. The first projects will probably bring you little or no money, but they help build a portfolio and reputation that can attract more clients.

There's also a 3rd option: entrepreneurship – aka working for yourself and, on cases, hiring others as well. Successful entrepreneurship is a skill like all the others, and you can and should train it as much and as soon as possible. Instead of not doing anything because of fear of failure or laziness, try to cultivate your entrepreneurial spirit by actually doing things. You might fail, but that's ok – the point is that you'll need to get up and try again, with a different idea.

There's always money to be made if you are a strong-willed entrepreneur – you can always find services or things to buy and resell. The secret is finding which ones, how and to whom.

On the top of my head, if you know English and know how to write, you can start a blog on a given topic, try to promote it wherever you can, then add advertising to it – if you are lucky and inspired, you might end up earning thousands of USD/month from it; if you aren't lucky, you still would have learned more about online marketing than you could learn in school. Alternatively, you can post videos on YouTube(and monetize through advertising) or write ebooks on particular subjects and sell them on your own website, Amazon or iBookstore. You can do the same about pretty much everything else – sell photos on stock photo websites (Fotolia or others), recorded sound effects or even music compositions.

As you guessed, trying to make money online is easy – and the reason there are thousands of "make money from home" books around. Really making money is more complicated – it takes experience, skill, and probably repeated failures.

In my case, as a programmer, my best bet would be to try to sell software – either as an online app which people want to pay to use, or as downloadable apps(which you can sell on the dedicated marketplaces – mobile apps for iOS, Android or Windows Phone, desktop apps on the Mac App Store or as shareware, etc). Developing great apps that people would pay money for is, as you guessed, more complicated also – and not something you can really teach. For me it worked, and has done so for the past years. I was lucky and inspired at first, and in time I got even better at it.

Repeated trials and failures are great teachers. You might get lucky from the beginning, you might get lucky later on, or you might simply never be lucky and base your success on skill and experience alone.
Whatever path you chose, just remember that the sooner you start your journey, the more time you have for it and the farther you might get to. So… good luck!

I didn’t really want to create a newsletter, I just wanted to see how it manages a longer list of contacts. So I figured I could import the  contacts from my Gmail account.

Big mistake. Big. Huge.

It imported the contacts, that’s for sure. But it also, without asking me first, without asking confirmation, without even warning me, sent out an “Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter” email to all the people I had ever contacted on Gmail: ex-boses, ex-girlfriends, business partners, teachers, friends, unknown others.

Shit.

You know what’s worse? (Yes, even worse than having spammed every one on my contact list with a completely useless email)

That it doesn’t even have a “select all” and delete option. Not even a “check this, this, this and this and then delete” one. Nope. For every single one of the hundreds of contacts it has imported, I have to click on an Ajax “x” button, then wait until a custom made alert popup appears, then move my mouse over to the confirm “Delete” button and click again, then move my mouse back to the “x” button of the next contact, and so on and so forth.

Heck, I can’t even delete my account(and all contacts within).

So I’ll have to spend the next hours not only apologizing to all the intrigued people  that write me back after receiving that email, but also laboring over the simple process of deleting hundreds of email addresses.

All of this because TinyLetter didn’t think it was necessary to warn me that importing an email address in its system would automatically and irrevocably send a confirmation email to the unsuspecting recipient. Or to allow me to chose which of the people in the Gmail contact list that it imported do I really want to add to its email list. Or something like that, anything.

So, please, everyone on that list, forgive me. I promise never to use that damned “import from Gmail” option again (this was my second time, the first similar shit storm was back in 2007 when I unwillingly sent out thousands of invites to Stumbleupon).

Does any sane person use it voluntarily?

Mine are more modest(since I prefer things to exceed my expectations, I keep mine rather low). I don’t know if there will be any retina display. Could be, because the technology exists, but I wouldn’t bet more than a couple of $ on it.

I think that the “We have something you need to see” in the invite was more about Apple TV(as confirmed by rumors about Apple TV shortages in stores). This would be the explanation for the long delay in launching iOS 5.1 – it was supposed to come out in November but obviously got delayed, and I think deep Apple TV integration is the reason. The part about “and touch” in the invite was obviously about iPad, but the lack on emphasis to it would point towards an incremental, rather than revolutionary, update.

So: iOS 5.1, a revolutionary Apple TV that we will actually want to get, and a better iPad that at first sight might disappoint us, just like iPad 2 did before it and iPad 1 before that.

PS. yes, I know, I’m being influenced by Gruber . C’est la vie