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Hew with WordPress: We’re launching a new upgrade called Guided Transfer where for a $99 one-time fee we’ll handle every detail and tech thingamajig involved in moving your content, theme, domain, and more to any one of the recommended hosts we’ve vetted. (And of course your new site will be Jetpack-powered.) That’s a bargain if…
Hew with WordPress:
We’re launching a new upgrade called Guided Transfer where for a $99 one-time fee we’ll handle every detail and tech thingamajig involved in moving your content, theme, domain, and more to any one of the recommended hosts we’ve vetted. (And of course your new site will be Jetpack-powered.)
That’s a bargain if you ask me.
I would like to ask all of you to help Japan recover from this natural disaster they are currently experiencing. I have family there and thus far we have not been able to reach them. Anything you donate helps.
I would like to ask all of you to help Japan recover from this natural disaster they are currently experiencing. I have family there and thus far we have not been able to reach them. Anything you donate helps.
Amanda Green: Yahoo! users are most likely to be overweight women ages 18-49 who have a high school diploma and are spiritual, but not religious. The funny thing about this report is that it seems pretty accurate based on my encounters.
Amanda Green:
Yahoo! users are most likely to be overweight women ages 18-49 who have a high school diploma and are spiritual, but not religious.
The funny thing about this report is that it seems pretty accurate based on my encounters.
Stephen M. Hackett: It brings the fun of iOS to the Mac, in an app that is much more lightweight than something like Photoshop or even Pixelmator. With the ability to edit filters and save presets for later, it really is pretty powerful. Just from the looks of it, this app isn’t for me —…
Stephen M. Hackett:
It brings the fun of iOS to the Mac, in an app that is much more lightweight than something like Photoshop or even Pixelmator. With the ability to edit filters and save presets for later, it really is pretty powerful.
Just from the looks of it, this app isn’t for me — but I think Stephen hits the nail on the head, in that it is a great little iOS type app for most Mac users.
Marco Arment: You can find friends through your linked Facebook or Twitter accounts, your email addresses in Contacts (from the app), or by entering their email addresses yourself (on the website). Since we’re starting from zero, check back often over the coming weeks to find more friends who linked their Facebook or Twitter accounts with…
Marco Arment:
You can find friends through your linked Facebook or Twitter accounts, your email addresses in Contacts (from the app), or by entering their email addresses yourself (on the website). Since we’re starting from zero, check back often over the coming weeks to find more friends who linked their Facebook or Twitter accounts with Instapaper.
This is a great update to one of the best apps and services I have used in the past 3+ years. This update is worth $20, but will cost you nothing — amazing.
I switched over to LaunchBar a long time ago, but it is good to see that Quicksilver has a new home and is being developed once again — adding not just bug fixes but new features as well. [via Cult of Mac]
I switched over to LaunchBar a long time ago, but it is good to see that Quicksilver has a new home and is being developed once again — adding not just bug fixes but new features as well.
Jack Dorsey responding to criticism from VeriFone: The waiter you hand your credit card to at a restaurant, for example, could easily steal your card details if he wanted to—no technology required. If you provide your credit card to someone who intends to steal from you, they already have everything they need: the information on…
Jack Dorsey responding to criticism from VeriFone:
The waiter you hand your credit card to at a restaurant, for example, could easily steal your card details if he wanted to—no technology required. If you provide your credit card to someone who intends to steal from you, they already have everything they need: the information on the front of your card.
You should read the entire letter because really it was a silly play on VeriFone’s part.
For all the whining over Readability’s App Store rejection I think the HTML5 version turned out quite nice.
For all the whining over Readability’s App Store rejection I think the HTML5 version turned out quite nice.
John Gruber: The fact is, Apple got it right with the iPad 1 in almost every way, and the iPad 2 reflects that. If you didn’t like the original iPad, you’re not going to like the iPad 2. If you liked the original iPad, you’re going to like the iPad 2 even better. I suspect…
John Gruber:
The fact is, Apple got it right with the iPad 1 in almost every way, and the iPad 2 reflects that. If you didn’t like the original iPad, you’re not going to like the iPad 2. If you liked the original iPad, you’re going to like the iPad 2 even better.
I suspect that is going to echo my sentiments when I get one.
Walter S. Mossberg: It never crashed in my tests, unlike every Android tablet I’ve tested.
Walter S. Mossberg:
It never crashed in my tests, unlike every Android tablet I’ve tested.
Joshua Topolsky: For owners of the previous generation, we don’t think Apple’s put a fire under you to upgrade. That seems to be the gist of most reviews.
Joshua Topolsky:
For owners of the previous generation, we don’t think Apple’s put a fire under you to upgrade.
That seems to be the gist of most reviews.
It’s lame that there isn’t at the very least a free account that lets you look at the highlights of the game like you can on the iOS apps. It is even more lame that a subscription will run you $99/yr. What’s cool is that this is on the Apple TV — also NBA is…
It’s lame that there isn’t at the very least a free account that lets you look at the highlights of the game like you can on the iOS apps. It is even more lame that a subscription will run you $99/yr.
What’s cool is that this is on the Apple TV — also NBA is there, but that’s less cool.
If you don’t have it already…well now is the time to rectify that. Here’s why.
If you don’t have it already…well now is the time to rectify that. Here’s why.
Douglas G. Bergeron, Chief Executive of Out-of-touch, on Square being insecure and vulnerable: Don’t take our word for it. See for yourself by downloading the sample skimming application and viewing a video of this type of fraud in action. That’s neat — I can’t wait for Microsoft to start making viruses for OS X to…
Douglas G. Bergeron, Chief Executive of Out-of-touch, on Square being insecure and vulnerable:
Don’t take our word for it. See for yourself by downloading the sample skimming application and viewing a video of this type of fraud in action.
That’s neat — I can’t wait for Microsoft to start making viruses for OS X to show that OS X is just as vulnerable.
(Also I doubt Apple will approve that app.)
Shawn Blanc: How long until Apple updates Mobile Me (or builds something new) that lets 3rd-party devs sync their apps over the air and that easily lets users keep their apps in sync just using our Apple IDs That’s a good question. I don’t think it really matters though, the Dropbox and Simplenote sync services…
Shawn Blanc:
How long until Apple updates Mobile Me (or builds something new) that lets 3rd-party devs sync their apps over the air and that easily lets users keep their apps in sync just using our Apple IDs
That’s a good question. I don’t think it really matters though, the Dropbox and Simplenote sync services have been working pretty darn good. I loathe to think I would need to use MobileMe to do it and I am not one of those that think MobileMe will go 100% free.
Though, admittedly, I still think Apple should buy Dropbox.
It’s a solid update and one of the most stable iOS betas I have ever used. As noted everywhere else the best improvement is in Safari — be sure to check that out.
It’s a solid update and one of the most stable iOS betas I have ever used. As noted everywhere else the best improvement is in Safari — be sure to check that out.
“FC Expert Blogger” Patrick J. Howie thinks a bunch of things about the tablet market and every single paragraph is another link baited piece of… He starts really strongly ending the first paragraph with this bit: There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 tablets coming out this year, and most of them seem to…
“FC Expert Blogger” Patrick J. Howie thinks a bunch of things about the tablet market and every single paragraph is another link baited piece of…
He starts really strongly ending the first paragraph with this bit:
There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 tablets coming out this year, and most of them seem to have no better sense of purpose than to replicate the iPad. This is a doomed strategy, if it can be called as strategy at all. But the iPad and the majority of its competitors are focusing on a very narrow view of what the tablet can do.
I can buy that, but I need you, Howie, to sell me on that last sentence. And so he tries:
Rather, the tablet has the potential to improve our productivity. While the iPad 2 makes some strides in this direction compared to the original iPad (especially with the stronger processor), the focus of most of the enhancements are aimed at improving the entertainment value of the device.
When did anyone ever complain about the processor? I seem to remember people applauding it and complaining about the lack of RAM, but ok let’s move on.
But it is just stronger processing power along with a mindset towards increasing our capacity to do things–not just playing games–which represents the future of the tablet.
OK, but you just said the iPad 2 has a stronger processor, so we are all good then right? Also didn’t you just say that the processor is only a minor part and that we need to focus on productivity — surely you don’t think processing power and productivity go hand in hand?
Apparently not, because he starts to talk about the Kno tablet and brings up this gem:
First, the Kno comes with a pen, which is too “uncool” for the Apple but which is very handy for writing compared to the impractical touch-screen keyboard.
Right, because all those pen computing devices of the past worked out so well for people, I mean even the Palm Pilot wasn’t great. But I can see the practical advantage of pen computing for writing notes and Howie follows with another strong point:
With the dual-screen, you can truly multitask in a way that just is not possible with the single-screen iPad. Users can compare two articles side by side, perform an Internet search and take notes at the same time, and even perform analysis on one side and document the results on the other.
That is a killer feature, but only for a very niche group of users: academics. Also you should Google: “laptop”.
But what is this:
If Apple would spend more effort improving the functional ability of the iPad, enabling application developers to create apps that truly improve our productivity, then the future of the tablet will arrive that much sooner.
Where is the proof that they are stifling or not-approving apps that increase user productivity? Simplenote, Dropbox, OmniFocus, 1Password are just a few of the approved apps that I use daily to improve my productivity. Most apps that are not approved are entertainment apps, not productivity apps. I really don’t see the evidence here and I think this is an idiotic statement, but I digress.
Because now he gets to the Xoom:
This is why the Xoom is so intriguing. Motorola and Google are two companies that have proven their ability to see around the corner and they have made it much easier for developers to get applications to market than Apple has with the iPad. However, the Xoom is really built to be another iPad with an emphasis on entertainment–as if two cameras is really the key to success in this category–which is a shame for all of us.
So the Xoom has potential because Motorola AND Google are building it!!! But, alas, it is just another iPad clone according to Howie.
I don’t even understand the logic here: he starts to touts the Xoom before then lumping it with the 100s of other iPad clones. This makes no sense, if you say that Motorola and Google are “two companies that have proven their ability to see around the corner” then do you mean that Apple is not that type of company?
After all it was Google that created Android and Motorola that created the iPhone — wait, nope. Google bought Android and Motorola is on its death bed.
I think the real argument Howie is trying to make is that Apple should allow all apps on iOS — which is clearly what he seems most frustrated about, not that he really thinks the iPad 2 is bad.
Watts Martin in response to post-PC ramblings: And when you can run them better on the tablet—no compromises—then “post-PC” won’t be a marketing buzzword anymore. We are pretty close to that for many apps — if you ask me.
Watts Martin in response to post-PC ramblings:
And when you can run them better on the tablet—no compromises—then “post-PC” won’t be a marketing buzzword anymore.
We are pretty close to that for many apps — if you ask me.
There has been a lot of talk lately about mobile notification systems and specifically what Apple might/should bring to iOS — I think that everyone can agree though that all notifications systems fall short of being great (even WebOS). Every single mock-up of a different notification system that I have seen solves only a subset…
There has been a lot of talk lately about mobile notification systems and specifically what Apple might/should bring to iOS — I think that everyone can agree though that all notifications systems fall short of being great (even WebOS). Every single mock-up of a different notification system that I have seen solves only a subset of the problems — they certainly are better than what we currently have on iOS, but these “solutions” are in no way a real solution.
They are neat studies in graphic design and user experience, but for me they only ever solve one of the two main notification problems.
The problem that most people have when they attempt to fix notification systems is that they solve one of the two above problems, but rarely both. ((I am being generous here because I actually don’t think any one has solved both of these problems.)) To solve both is difficult at best and, impossible to most (including me).
How do you design a notification to simultaneously be annoying and alerting, while at the same time getting of the way when it needs to get out the way. That is, to say it better: how do you design a notification that notifies you and reminds you of things, all the while it doesn’t annoy you and notify you about erroneous stuff?
Is it even possible?
In the past this was solved by hiring a real, live, human being to sit at a desk outside of your office — this was a stellar system. This person (let’s call them an “assistant”) knew when you were in a rush and cranky, they knew exactly what you needed to know as you ran out the door to the next meeting that started 15 minutes ago. The assistant knew and they knew not because they were good at notifying you, but because they were intelligent. They could read so many non-verbal cues that allowed them to know exactly what was going on from just a glance of you.
That was (and for some is) a great solution — then HP and Palm and others decided it was best to replace them with digital calendars and even more people decided it would be great to take phones and email with you everywhere you go. Which compounded the problems that we currently have.
If you leave all the default notifications on my iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air then you will have a rather obnoxious symphony of beeps, boops, bops, pops, and windows showing up. It ain’t pretty.
When I click on my iPad and I see a notification that I dismiss, only to get another, then another, another, and another — I always stop and think: “where is the clear all button?”
A dismiss all button would have been a colossal mistake for Apple to have included, because just maybe the third notification is one that I REALLY need to see. Right there is the problem with adding a “dismiss all” button — the point of a notification is that it is something that needs to be seen before you casually dismiss it.
Again this is why people are so good at notifications, we inherently know when something is and is not relevant based on who we are notifying and simultaneously know when something that was important is no longer important.
I don’t have a solution the the hardcore UI, UX, and technical design problems that exist above, but I do have a practical way to help.
Stop the notifications.
The simple problem is that most people are getting too many notifications about things that just don’t matter. Or, as Art Webb said, “If you make everything bold, nothing is bold.”
Amen.
Do you really need to know when the Mighty Eagle is ready again in Angry Birds? Do you really need to know every time your favorite team scores? Do you need a reminder on every calendar appointment? Do you?
What do you need?
Start there.
Marco Arment writing about which iPad 2 you should get offers this gem of a footnote in reference to his use of waiting “on line”: If you aren’t in New York, you probably say “in line”. Your pizza might suck, too. Sorry. But hey, your real estate is affordable. Win some, lose some. I love…
Marco Arment writing about which iPad 2 you should get offers this gem of a footnote in reference to his use of waiting “on line”:
If you aren’t in New York, you probably say “in line”. Your pizza might suck, too. Sorry. But hey, your real estate is affordable. Win some, lose some.
I love footnotes.