If you don’t already use LaunchBar now would be a good time to join the party.
Year: 2010
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MUJI Apps for iPad
The calendar is average, all the icons are ugly – but thankfully not blue. The notepad app, very neat – I like being able to type notes anywhere on the page, and be able to doodle as well. Nicely done. That Muji To Go app, yeah I am not even going to bother downloading that one.
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iPad Life Update
Quick update to all of the iPad Life interviews to date, they now all have screenshots from the interviewees as part of the post. Be sure to go back and check them all out, there are some cool wallpapers on some of these iPads.
[Thanks to Shawn Blanc for kicking off this idea.] -
TechRadar’s Samsung Galaxy Tab Review
They say the scrolling and battery life is all kinds of horrible.
Which is funny because Engadget didn’t seem to mind. Conspiracy, no, just crappy inconsistent hardware and software.
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Neven Mrgan: Notes on setting up a new Mac
Some great thoughts on some of the rough edges while setting up a new Mac. Windows users should take note that we are complaining about the way the default startpage looks in Safari, what was your last experience setting up a Windows box like?
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Because They Are Microsoft
For seemingly no reason Microsoft changed around some shortcut keys that they could have left alone for those moving from Entourage 2008 to Outlook 2011 on the Mac. What a bunch of [insert your own insult].
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‘Meet the Resistance’
Paul Kafasis:
So let’s try to put an end to security theatre. Let’s take back our rights, along with our dignity. Let’s remember what Ben Franklin taught us, that those who sacrifice liberty for security (or worse, the illusion of security) deserve neither. Let’s find our balls, and then make them touch ‘em.
I’m in.
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Nothing About This is ‘Easy’
A six step process that has you dialing 27 numbers on your phone just to record a call, better yet read the description of how you can record an incoming call. Absurd.
[via 37signals] -
Get the Best Capital One Loan Using Chrome
Super odd, but a reader of Consumerist is reporting that they got different loan rates from Capital One based on which browser he used. Firefox was 3.5%, Safari 2.7%, Opera 3.1%, Chrome 2.3%. Let me know if you have seen anything like this.
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Put This On: Where Do I Put My Cell Phone?
Men’s style blog Put This On answer the perplexing question of where you should carry your cellphone, or more importantly where you should not carry it. Jesse Thorn:
You’re right to think that the belt clip is the pocket protector of our generation. There is absolutely no excuse for it. It is embarassing, and if you own one of these grotesque monstrosities, you should throw it away now, lest you be tempted to wear it in the future.
So to my friends and readers who carry theirs on their belt, I am just trying to help.
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Shawn Blanc’s iPad Life
Please welcome Shawn Blanc, perhaps best known for his exquisite writing on ShawnBlanc.net, he was kind enough to take some time to share his iPad Life with me.
Tell me a little about yourself, what do you do, where do you live?
I am a full-time missionary at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City. I serve as the Director of Marketing and head up our website, design, branding, and most other communication efforts.
Because of my affinity of fine software and great design I write a tech- and design-centric website at shawnblanc.net. Also, I drive a 20th Anniversary Edition Volkswagen GTI (#3455 of 4000), and I love to snowboard.
What was your reaction when the iPad was launched?
When Steve Jobs first announced the iPad in February it was pretty much what I expected. Watching him show it off, it just seemed like a big iPod touch. Not that I was unimpressed, just that it instantly seemed familiar.
But then the reviews started rolling out just a few days before it went on sale — I especially remember reading David Pogue’s, Andy Ihnatko’s, and Stephen Fry’s articles. Based on these guys’ reactions, it was obvious that the iPad wasn’t just a giant iPod touch and that the next few weeks and months were going to be very exciting for early adopters.
By then it was two days before the release, and so it was too late to pre-order one and get it in time for launch day. I had no choice but to arrive early at the Apple store and wait in line.
Which model did you order and why?
I bought the 16GB, Wi-Fi model (the 3G models weren’t available on day one), along with the Apple case and a bluetooth keyboard.
Based on how and where I use my laptop I knew I’d be fine with the version that offered Wi-Fi only. And based on how many apps and music I keep on my iPhone I knew 16GB of storage would be more than enough for me. And I was right.
Though it would be nice to have a 3G model so I could still have connectivity at times when Wi-Fi is not available, those times are few and far between. In fact, usually those times are when there is Wi-Fi but it’s slow.
How are you using the iPad on a daily basis?
My iPad is used for all sorts of things: reading, writing, taking notes, jotting down to-do items, sketching out Website ideas for my team, setting meetings, checking email, and more.
Can you give me a quick run down of the apps that you use the most?
I do a lot of reading in Instapaper, Reeder, and iBooks (Instapaper on the iPad is perhaps the best way to read the Internet). I also buy and read Wired every month.
Even with the plethora of writing apps which have come out, I still write all my notes in Simplenote, and do a lot of long-form writing here as well (using the bluetooth keyboard). Though I have bought and fiddled with Writer and PlainText and a few others, I am still sticking with Simplenote as my main writing/syncing app of choice.
For sketching, I use Penultimate; it’s fun and clever (though Adobe Ideas is also a good sketching app and happens to be free).
In the past few months OmniFocus has grown into a vital iPad app. Not only is OmniFocus a fantastic task-management app (on iPhone, iPad, and the Mac) but the iPad version is by far the strongest version of the three-app suite from OmniGroup, and I use it for my weekly project reviews.
Which app is your favorite?
Based on time spent in the app: Simplenote.
Based on most-frequently launched: Twitterrific.
Based on personal affection: Instapaper.
Do you have any bag/stand/case recommendations for people?
I use Apple’s iPad case. It gets a lot of flack, but I like it. It is not the coolest case ever (the sharp edges are annoying), but it is thin and highly functional.
If I need to prop my iPad up while its not in its case, I use an inexpensive book stand that I picked up on Amazon a few years back.
What features do you want to see in a future iPad?
My future feature requests are just the usual suspects: retina display, an even longer battery life, and a lighter casing that makes it easier to hold in one hand.
Also, I’d love some sort of Apple-led, Dropbox killing, cloud service that allowed all my iPad, iPhone, and Mac apps to work much better together. Right now, each developer has to build their own syncing solution and though Dropbox is significantly helping make that possible, it’s not the ideal situation.
Thanks again to Shawn for taking the time to give us a little insight into his iPad life. Be sure to follow him on Twitter he is @shawnblanc.
More iPad Life
To see more people’s iPad Lives take a look here.
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Owen Cain – A Feel Good Story
Emily B. Hager for the New York Times:
Owen will turn 8 on Nov. 11. While his condition is not expected to worsen, he is extremely sensitive to infection and once nearly died of pneumonia; three specialized therapists and a nurse help keep him alive.
Though he cannot speak, his parents have taught him to read, write and do math. He has an impish sense of humor and a love of “Star Wars.” “He’s a normal child trapped in a not normal body,” said his father, Hamilton Cain, 45, a book editor.
Since he received the iPad, Owen has been trying to read books, and playing around with apps like Air Guitar. And, one day, he typed out on the keypad, “I want to be Han Solo for Halloween.”
What a great story, I love to read about how devices like the iPad are helping those that felt so helpless before.
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Does Things.app Have Over-the-Air Sync?
Nice single serving site:
To this day, Things.app does not have Over-the-Air syncing.
OmniFocus for iPhone was released on July 10, 2008. From day one, it featured some form of Over-the-Air syncing.
Customers of CulturedCode have waited over two years for Over-the-Air syncing. The company says they are working on it, but every day that goes by without the feature is another day when switching to OmniFocus looks all the more enticing.
Come to the dark side (aka The OTA syncing side).
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Some Sites Should Never Go Down
Earlier today PayPal was down – there are some sites that should never go down, this site and banking sites are among those. PayPal going down would be akin to you local bank branch closing to go on vacation – who’s OK with that?
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Good Deal on an SSD
I am selling my old SSD drive on eBay – save yourself $100 over the price of a new one and buy this one. I am even throwing in an external enclosure so you can clone your current drive.
You can also buy the MacBook Pro I busted the other night if you are so inclined.
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Mint Data
Want to know how much a person normally spends when they go to a restaurant you are checking out? Enter Mint’s new data portal that tells you just that based on actual transactions. This is all sorts of data porn – awesome.
[via Gina Trapani] -
Marco: ‘The Mac App Store isn’t for today’s Mac developers’
Marco Arment:
So I expect a lot of iOS developers to start making Mac apps, especially individuals and very small teams.
Agreed.
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David Pogue: “Office for Mac Isn’t an Improvement”
David Pogue on Office 2011 for the Mac:
The Mac suite now includes the Ribbon, a horizontal toolbar that’s built into Office for Windows. What I don’t get is this: Last time I checked, computer screens were all wider than they are tall. The last thing you’d want to do is to eat up that limited vertical screen space with interface clutter like the Ribbon. Don’t we really want those controls off to the side, as with the Formatting Palette in the previous Mac Office?
Overall he doesn’t like it, and you know why? Pogue said it at the beginning of the review:
Much of the work Microsoft has done is to make the Mac version of Office look and work more like the Windows versions.
That is always a recipe for disaster because it never feels like a ‘real’ Mac application when companies try to do that.
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The Value of ‘Pro’ v. ‘Lite’
After writing about trials/demoes yesterday I got to thinking about in-app purchases to upgrade to full versions and the perceived value of calling software ‘Pro’ versus ‘Lite’. It occurred to me that there is an inherent value in the ‘Pro’ tag and there is an inherent devaluation that happens when you tag something ‘Lite’.
Look at it this way, Angry Birds has two versions of their game for sale, a ‘Lite’ version that is free and then a non-lite version that you must pay for. What Angry Birds is saying by titling the two versions this way is that the ‘lite’ version is of lesser value than the regular version – it is a lesser app with fewer levels. Now imagine that Angry Birds sold the Angry Birds title sans-lite for free, it would be the same game, just not titled ‘lite’. What was Angry Birds before now becomes Angry Birds Pro, this is the version that you must pay for.
So my question is this: would you rather pay for Angry Birds or Angry Birds Pro if they both costed the same and were the same exact app?
The real question it would seem is should your trial version be called a ‘lite’ version, or should you call your full-version a ‘Pro’ version?
From what I have been able to sort out, the differences look like this:
Lite Means Cheap
Whenever I see someone with a ‘lite’ version of an app on their device I immediately wonder why they just don’t pay for the full version. If they like it enough to keep it on their phone surely it is worth something. ‘Lite’ then in my eyes carries a negative connotation, it means that it is not as good as the non-lite version.
It makes me want to have the non-lite version of the app because I don’t want to be seen having the ‘lite’ version. This is good for a couple of reasons.
- People will feel a desire to upgrade and pay for the full version of the app, thus removing the ‘lite’ tag from their mind.
- It in no unclear terms tells the customer that they are not getting the full-version and as such should not expect the app to be as good as the full version.
This is why I think so many people have stuck with the ‘lite’ tag for trial versions of apps in the iOS app store – they do not want negative comments because people expected to get a full version of the app.
Pro Means Pro
If I see that an app is free to use, but also has a ‘Pro’ version I immediately want to know the difference between the two, because I always feel that I need the ‘Pro’ version of everything. If my buddy has app ‘X’ on his iPhone and I have app ‘X Pro’ on mine I will immediately feel vindicated in having paid for the app. That is giving people a ‘Pro’ tag when they buy instead of just removing the ‘lite’ tag seems to have a larger inherent value in the consumer mind.
There is though a consequence of structuring you software in this way: it does nothing to tell your consumer that the ‘non-pro’ version is really just a trial or ‘lite’ version in disguise. That is there is little reason for many consumers to think a paid upgrade is worth it to them, most people don’t feel the compelling urge to be a ‘pro’ when it comes to iOS apps. This could and probably would lead to rather negative ratings and comments from people expecting to get a full version only to find that they downloaded a trial. That said by designating the ‘Pro’ tag for your paid versions you are giving paying customers something more tangible than they get with the ‘lite’ model.
The Right Tag
There is no right tag, but I think that certain apps should be using certain tagging instrumentation. Games are probably best served sticking with the ‘Lite’ system as it is the best way to let people know that they are not getting the full version of the game. For apps that some people will be perfectly happy using just the free version, and could conceivably continue to use a free version indefinitely the ‘Pro’ tag seems to make more sense. These are apps like Twitterrific that in the free version works fine, but you can only use one account and you must see ads. Paying for the full version removes these issues. Thus a consumer could use the free version indefinitely if it suited their needs, and would only need to pay for the app if they wanted the extra ‘pro’ level features.
I say ‘Pro’ makes more sense only if you develop an app that has two versions, one free and one paid and the free version is made to be a scaled down version that can stand on its own (meaning you don’t run out of “levels” as you would in a game). You are in effect giving away a full version of your app for free, and selling a version with more features as a ‘Pro’ level which is in line with what the consumer mind expects.
Either route you go I doubt you will get rid of the rude comments that plague the App Store.
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The 13″ MacBook Air Scares TSA – The 11″ Not So Much
Jeff Gamet:
U.S. air travelers can leave their shiny new 11.6-inch MacBook Air laptops in their bags when passing through airport security checkpoints according to the TSA. The 13.3-inch model, however, is too big and still must come out for separate screening.
Yet another reason why the 11 is going to make inroads with first-class.
