Sean Sperte on the first problem he has with the new Friends app for iPhone:
The app requires a question (“where do I go?/what do I do?”), answer (“I think I want to see what’s new”), and solution (after searching, “I guess I tap Posts”) from the user on its home screen.
This is a really great, constructive, analysis of the Friends app – its attempt to be your one source for updates on social networks. I haven’t tried it, but from what I gather it falls well whort of its goal.
I have three calculators installed on my iPhone and two on my iPad. Those three are: Soulver, Calcbot, Apple’s Calculator (iPhone only). Add to that Convert and INCHcalc on the iPhone and I really look like I have a problem doing math. ((I do.)) Today I decided that enough was enough and I was going to pick just one calculator and stick with it – there is no need to have so many on my iOS devices (converters are fine, same with that inch-foot calculator until I get out of the Real Estate biz – and God do I wish I could delete Apple’s offering).
The decision boils down to: Soulver or Calcbot. Soulver is more powerful and functional, but I only use that stuff a fraction of the time. Calcbot is as sexy as an iOS calculator can get and it rarely leaves me needing more power. Cost isn’t an issue as I have purchased them both already.
Most of the time my finger reaches for Calcbot on my iOS devices – I assume I click on it because I adore the interface. What has become clear is that regardless of which app I click on – I much prefer using Soulver. The app is not as pretty as Calcbot, but it is highly functional and becomes a tool that gets out of your way – allowing you to just calculate (I guess).
One feature I just love about the app is the way it allows you to work with percentages. I deal with percentages all the time, and I would be dishonest if I said that I don’t get confused some times. The iPad app presents you with the following plethora of percentage options:
That is pretty sweet if you ask me. The iPhone version can perform similar tasks by holding the percentages button. You can also write in the expressions that you see on the iPad app giving you a sort of natural language calculator (’10% off of $100’ works).
Soulver is far from winning design awards, but it is the most usable calculator I have tried for iOS. ((The Mac version rocks too.)) Calcbot is serviceable, but Soulver is the best offering I have tried when it comes to actually using a calculator for calculations
This is the first I had heard of Idilia that was founded in 2000 and as reported by Erica Naone:
The software focuses on the problem of word-sense disambiguation—choosing the meaning of a word based on what makes the most sense in context. Word-sense disambiguation is an old artificial intelligence problem that has proved thorny over the decades. For a computer to apply a word correctly in context, it has to have a huge amount of background information—not just what’s in a dictionary but also a map of how words fit together both grammatically and conceptually.
They are applying it to search engines to give people better results. I think the greatest money will be made with mobile auto-correct algorithms that could solve a lot of text message confusion. This is the type of company Google and Apple should be looking at buying up.
Some great tips from Macgasm. My MacBook Pro used to wake up all the time in my bag and would feel like a hot stove when I pulled it out. Be sure that your Mac is asleep when you put it away – MacBook Air has not yet had that problem which is good because there is no sleep indicator light.
Quite a while ago I download Keyboard Maestro, installed it and quickly gave up on it. At that time I really just didn’t have a need for what it could do. Since then I have become quite the keyboard junkie and I really hate having to use the mouse. I find it is slow and inefficient for most text based actions. I always wished that I could do more just by pressing the keyboard, kind of like how in just about every TV show the IT guy can zoom and enhance a picture with just a few key strokes. That is when I remembered Keyboard Maestro; I decided it was time to give it a fair shake down.
Keyboard Maestro is not just an app for assigning keyboard shortcuts to things that is built into Mac OS X for most all menu commands. This is a tool for people that want to do a lot of stuff with just a few presses of the keyboard.
Things like renaming a group of files, opening a set of applications, creating global commands. The types of things that bring your computer that much closer to the imaginary computers on shows like CSI and others. If you are not a nerd, if you prefer the mouse, or if you just prefer not to tinker then you should stop reading here: this app is of no value to you.
If you are still reading then get ready to waste a lot of time playing in this app.
When I first opened up Keyboard Maestro I looked around at the pre-filled actions that it can preform and started to think about which ones I wanted to keep ‘enabled’ and which I didn’t care about. I started to toy with ideas, grand ideas, that proved a little too advanced for the app. So I brought myself back to reality and kept the window open.
From that moment on, every time I did something that I felt should be more automated, I tried to make the action in Keyboard Maestro. The first thing I came across was needing to close all open applications so that I could perform a SuperDuper! backup (I am paranoid about having things running during a back up).
So I made a ‘super quit’ command:
This took all of 10 seconds to make; now I can perform backups much faster. Nice.
At this point I liked Keyboard Maestro, but it had hardly emboldened itself in my Mac experience.
Then I wanted to reopen my apps that I just closed so that I could get back to work which was the problem. I don’t keep apps in my dock, so I launch them via LaunchBar. This means is a lot of keyboard strokes to do something that should be automatic.
(Side note: I don’t use open at login for much of anything because I hate having to wait for apps to load when I know exactly what I want to launch. I much prefer to be in control of what is opening and when those apps are opening. Open at login seems to get in the way more often than not.)
I wanted to create a command that launched the apps and got them ready for me to use.
Here is my typical morning computing workflow: wake computer > launch apps I need to get going ((These were all quit the night before for backing up the computer.)) > take my medicine ((Allergies)) > back to the computer to get going > close windows I don’t need >start computing. I wanted to eliminate steps #2 and #5, the launching of apps, and closing of windows. Since I would be away from my computer during these times, the time it takes to do this is not important.
Here is what I came up with:
I want to talk a little bit about what is going on here so that you can begin to grasp the power of Keyboard Maestro.
Basically I am opening a bunch of apps and then hiding/closing the windows that they automatically create. By the time I get back from my medical excursion the MacBook Air is ready to roll.
Ok so the above is a pretty basic use case for Keyboard Maestro. I still think this is where you should start, so you can get a feel for how the app works. Once you do that you can start drawing in other things; Keyboard Maestro makes it pretty simple to do so.
One thing that I do daily is move files from my ‘Inbox’ folder to a ‘To File’ folder. Before Keyboard Maestro this meant dragging the files from one folder to another. In order to be fast I need to keep my ‘To File’ folder in the Finder sidebar, which drove me crazy. I can now ‘file’ any file from any folder with a keystroke:
I couldn’t find a way to ‘move’ a file, nor did cut and paste work. So I created a simple copy and paste command that deletes the original files when it is done. The only reason for a pause in there is to make sure that everything closes properly.
There is a lot more stuff you can do with Keyboard Maestro. You can for example have it execute an Automator or Applescript for you. I have actions set now to resize images with a keystroke, rename files, and much more. I haven’t had the program long, but I can tell you that in the time I have had it I have really come to love the flexibility and automation that it adds to my Mac.
I have not provided many examples here of what Keyboard Maestro can do, but I am confident that when combined with shell scripts, applescripts and Automator workflows you can accomplish just about anything you would want to. In fact I don’t think I have ever used Automator as much as I do now that I combine it with some great Keyboard Maestro magic. ((I have a macro setup up where hitting a key command after I select a group of images prompts for what I want the name to be.))
Shawn Blanc shared a great Hazel rule tonight on Twitter – it reveals a zip files contents when you expand it within Mail.app. A nice addition.
Chris Rawson responding to Joshua Kors–whom I have already deemed an idiot:
Frustrated with his inability to work with Mac OS X, Kors decided to attempt to install a virtual machine of Windows using Parallels. But when Parallels asked him for a Windows installation disc, he cried, “where the hell am I going to get a copy of the Windows CD?” Probably at any major US software retailer.
Love this entire response.
Simson Garfinkel on why IE 9’s anti-tracking feature will not work:
More important, the new feature won’t stop the websites you access from tracking you. And since you won’t block the websites you are using, you won’t block the tracking.
John C. Dvorak asking if he is wrong about the notion that the iPad is an old persons computer, and no one under 30 wants to own one:
Am I wrong about this?
Yes, yes you are. You said so yourself earlier in your article:
I’m sure every department store Santa Claus has heard an earful of requests for an iPad.
Now unless I am wrong going to sit on Santa’s lap is an overwhelmingly “under the age of 30” thing to do.
I had a swamped morning. When I saw, on Twitter, that CNN had launched a free iPad app I was pretty excited to give a whirl. To date there have been very few news apps for the iPad that have been worth a damn.
I am sad to say that the CNN app is among the worst news apps released for the iPad.
When you fire up the app the first page you see a grid of images with article titles. A lone ad sits at the side and everything looks and works in a decent fashion. ((Scroll sucks, but that is the case in most apps with this type of view. Look at Reuters for example.)) You can switch between three main view modes to disseminate your news: Grid/Mosaic, List, and ridiculously large images with tiny headlines. I don’t know why anyone would want the latter. The list view may win the award for the most boring view state available on the iPad; it should be said that there are other apps with equally ugly list views, this just so happens to really look bad.
So you are stuck with the grid view if you want to keep your sanity.
Upon checking out all these view modes I was willing to forgive the app since reading the news is the most important aspect. I moved directly into the articles view and what I saw was more than disappointing: it is a blatant disregard for the reader. The article is held to the left edge of the screen (both orientations) and in landscape view it only takes up half of the screen. Half. What the hell is that about?
The other half of the screen is a lovely advertisement; you are also given the option to view comments and add yours in this space. So what CNN is essentially saying is that the content they write is of equal importance as the content their readers and advertisers write. Hmmm.
You get between 8-10 words a line with this layout. That is not abysmal, but it is pathetic. For the most part the column size remains the same when you flip to portrait view. The app sucks in either orientation.
I am glad I am done writing this post so I can delete the CNN app from my iPad.
There is so much false stuff and stupid things Joshua Kors says I had a hard time choosing:
I knew that, unlike a PC, I wouldn’t be able to connect one computer to another and transfer over my documents.
Yes, Joshua Kors thinks that Macs cannot network. Idiot. If you want a good laugh read the entire thing.
A while back Ian Hines asked me if I would like to participate in an interview for his new site ‘Intrvws’ I was honored to do so and it was a lot of fun too. Don’t just click through to read my interview, click through and read the ones that interest you, then subscribe to the site.
Patrick Rhone speaking about his 11″ 64GB MacBook Air:
So far, my experience has been a great one. I’m using it as close to “out of the box” as I can and being very picky about the apps I install. As of this writing I still have over 30GB available.
That is pretty incredible restraint. He lists a few apps that he decided not to install, and indeed I deleted a bunch of apps that I was not using the other day just for the hell of it. When I was reading Rhone’s initial thoughts I couldn’t help but wondering what apps he is keeping web only. For instance is Simplenote web only, or is he still using Notational Velocity or other Simplenote clients. It will be interesting to hear how he fairs after a longer period of time passes.
James Kendrick
This year was definitely the year of the tablet, even with only a few models reaching consumers’ hands.
I disagree, 2011 will be the year of the tablet. Tablets no doubt took off in 2010 and the market was transformed by Apple’s iPad. But sales were far to slow, next year with more models on the market will make 2010 seem like only a few dozen were sold. Next year is the year that you come home and your grandparents are sitting around playing with their iPads.
What I would really like to see that is missing from this list: top Twitter clients.
A very in-depth look at the Cr-48. Mg Siegler does a great job going over the machine and the OS as a whole, one of the better product reviews I have seen in a while.
It was late ((For me, which means it was about 11pm.)) and I was at my computer trying to figure some annoying coding problem on my wife’s website. I was tired and I stared blankly at the keyboard on my MacBook Air. I was praying that some how that keyboard would type the answers for me. Then I saw that damned power button in the corner of the keyboard and it just stuck with me, I thought: why the hell is that there.
Ok: I know the power button is there to turn on the computer (and in some case to turn it off). In over a month of owning the MacBook Air, do you know how many times I have pressed that button? Neither do I, but if I had to guess I would reckon that I have pressed it no more than 4 times, likely just twice.
Now anybody who computed in the 90s can probably tell you that the power button was used almost daily, and the clever little ‘reset’ buttons twice daily. ((Nice job Microsoft.)) Today though most Mac users probably very rarely push the power button on their computer. Maybe only when they fly. ((Though I don’t even do that – I know that makes me bad.))
If you really think about it, how long would you give power buttons before they go the way of the floppy disk? I bet in the next year we will start to see more and more devices that just have sleep buttons, completely lacking a dedicated button to turn the device on and off. Why would you? ((Yes, yes, planes I know.))
Think about your iPad/iPhone, you probably press the power button at the top all the time. What you probably rarely ever do is press and hold that button to turn the device on and off, instead you just use that button to sleep the device. Same with the power button on your Mac, sure you restart it now and then, but shut it down? Nah, that is soo Clinton era. Instead you just close the laptop screen and open the screen. Simple.
Battery life is simply too good to worry about turning things on and off any longer. Power management while our devices are in ‘standby’ modes has been perfected to the point where we no longer worry about our devices while they sleep.
In fact the main reason we used to turn gadgets on and off was to conserve battery life, but my MacBook Air will sleep for 30 days. I can’t remember the last time I went 4 days without using my computer, let alone 30. Advances in power management are truly making off and on irrelevant in today’s electronics.
Most office workers remember having to turn their machines off at the end of the day and back on the next morning. I doubt many do that any longer, either they are using a laptop, or on a desktop simply locking the machine when they leave is sufficient for their employer.
I used to turn off my cell phone daily. Now I get anxiety about what I might miss when I need to reboot it. There rarely is ever a reason to turn my phone completely off.
I am not trying to be nostalgic about things, I am trying to prove a point: more and more power buttons are becoming completely obsolete.
In fact the only power buttons I push any more are for my TV, the Receiver attached to the TV and my dSLR. How long do you think it will be until our TVs are just always on and ready to be used, perhaps just showing a picture slideshow until we start watching a video? How long until our cameras sense being picked up and having the shutter depressed?
I hope it is not long, because I am beginning to forget what the power button is for.
The oddest cases of power buttons are with bluetooth peripherals, things like mice, keyboards, headsets. Why do these need power buttons? I have two bluetooth headsets in my car, both are on 24/7 and when the battery runs low I recharge them in the car. It is all rather painless and I never have to think about turning them on and off.
Same with my Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad: both on all the time. I never turn them off and why would I? It would be just one extra step I would need to take before using them. I am sure some of you are saying: ah, but when you thorw peripherals like mice and keyboards in a bag with your laptop they could potentially wake up that device. True, but honestly that seems like a problem that could easily be solved with the next software update. Most modern Mac users will tell you that even if you allow a bluetooth device to ‘wake’ your Mac, that it will not do so unless the lid is open, or a display is attached to it. So really if your Macbook [whatever] is in your computer bag with a mouse that is “on” – you have nothing to worry about.
I think we could save a lot of space on these devices if we all just agree that power buttons are irrelevant.
What if my Magic Trackpad was always off until it sensed my fingers near the device, then at that moment it sprung to life and started working. Perhaps it isn’t really off, just sleeping. Same with bluetooth headsets, they wake up when I put one on, and are sleeping the rest of the time.
Don’t even get me started on external HD enclosures that have on and off switches on the back of them. Can you think of any more ways to annoy consumers: “before you want to use this external HD that is ugly and you have hidden away, be sure to turn in on using that small hidden black switch on the back.” Thanks for that manufacturers.
I have for a while now owned the URL ‘tbr.co’ but due to how long it took me to get that URL I had already purchased ‘tbr.mx’ to use as a URL shortener. Well tonight Ian Hines helped me out and showed me how to get everything pointed at ‘tbr.co’ to redirect to the same page at ‘brooksreview.net’.
So if you want to go to the TBR archives you have two options:
or
http://tbr.co/archive
The latter will just redirect you to the former. So why the two? Easy, you save typing 10 characters and when you are doing that on your phone it counts. This should work with every page BTW.
Andy Ihnatko:
But without a connection to the Internet, this cutting-edge machine had become little more than a Notebook-Shaped Object. The six or seven open browser tabs in front of me were just ghosts of webapps that joined the choir invisible as soon as they lost contact with their servers.
I still want to play with one. Hope Google sends me one, though it is not looking hopeful.
Leon Kaufman & Joseph W. Carlson:
It is very likely that a large (15-20 cm in diameter), irregularly-shaped, cm-thick pancake with beveled edges, taped to the abdomen, would be invisible to this technology, ironically, because of its large volume, since it is easily confused with normal anatomy. Thus, a third of a kilo of PETN, easily picked up in a competent pat down, would be missed by backscatter “high technology”. Forty grams of PETN, a purportedly dangerous amount, would fit in a 1.25 mm-thick pancake of the dimensions simulated here and be virtually invisible. Packed in a compact mode, say, a 1 cm×4 cm×5 cm brick, it would be detected.
Yay they give us cancer and don’t catch things that metal detectors can’t catch.
[via Boing Boing]