Top Posts
Stacey Armato: I then begged him to read the TSA rules I had printed out. He read the first form which stated that medical liquids can have alternate screening (no x-ray). He was quick to say “well this isn’t a medical liquid!” So I had him read the second form which says breast milk is…
Stacey Armato:
I then begged him to read the TSA rules I had printed out. He read the first form which stated that medical liquids can have alternate screening (no x-ray). He was quick to say “well this isn’t a medical liquid!” So I had him read the second form which says breast milk is to be treated like a medical liquid. He then says, “well, not today.” I started balling all over again once he said that.
This needs to stop, what ridiculous behavior.
It was funny at hour 3 for me, then I started feeling bad for its users from hours 5-10. Now though this is getting funny-sad again. Where is Marco Arment when Tumblr needs him…
It was funny at hour 3 for me, then I started feeling bad for its users from hours 5-10. Now though this is getting funny-sad again. Where is Marco Arment when Tumblr needs him…
After spending a good amount of time with the Samsung Galaxy Tab there are a few things that Android has that I wish iOS devices had. Right now I think the best mobile platform you can get is iOS, whether it be a Touch, iPad, iPhone you really can’t go wrong. I do however see…
After spending a good amount of time with the Samsung Galaxy Tab there are a few things that Android has that I wish iOS devices had. Right now I think the best mobile platform you can get is iOS, whether it be a Touch, iPad, iPhone you really can’t go wrong. I do however see some obvious things from Android that would elevate iOS to the next level.
It irks me to no end that you can’t use an iOS device as a Wi-Fi hotspot to share the web connection. Yes you can tether the iPhone via USB, but who carries an iPod cable with them? I was able to turn the tab into a sweet little hotspot that acted much like the MiFi, without having to carry the MiFi.
I don’t even care if AT&T charges me $20 a month to use this, I really don’t – just let me do it already.
A mobile hotspot is not something that many non-technical people are probably clamoring for, but I would be willing to bet that just about everyone would use it at some point. As a society we have simply become to dependent on Internet access to function at a high level, if we have Internet on our phone would it not make sense to share that with our other devices?
I am not talking about organizing icons, or changing the background. I want some sort of widgets that I can put on the home screen, it’s not for everyone, but it would be a great option to have my home screen be able to show:
Others might like it to show more, but I just want to be able to search right away, that extra swipe is annoying. The grid layout of App icons is nice, but real time info without having to open an app is so essential that I am constantly irritated by the lack of it on the iOS home screens.
I don’t want Swype on iOS, I think it is silly – I do want developers to be able to hack the keyboard so that you can set custom layouts across the OS. That would be sweet. If I could get the keyboard that is used in Writer in Mail I would be one happy camper.
There are so many people out there that have mocked up variants of iOS keyboards, especially for the iPad and I would love to be able to try some of them out. Having to go to the ‘third’ layer of keyboards just to get to the “>” keys is very annoying.
I highly doubt Apple will ever allow this though, so I am going to stop before I get too excited about the possibilities.
Oh man are notifications bad in iOS. What is really bad though are the meaningless icon badges that apps use. Gee thanks Twitter, but does that mean I have 2 new mentions, tweets, or DMs to read – oh and on which account? For the record Androids implementation sucks too. I have not tried WebOS’s but I hear it is nice, though it may be dead. ((Prove me wrong HP.))
I say do away with all icon badges, and work on a system wide notification system that is informational to use, otherwise whats the point of notifying me? The push notification system sucks to, no way of dismissing the message when the screen is locked without getting sent straight to the App. Also have you ever had more than one of these pop-up because that is just the most helpful thing ever, isn’t it?
Ok iOS does a better job managing RAM than Android, but Android does a better job letting apps do stuff in the background. I want the best of both worlds, and I need it today.
I love OmniFocus because it has OTA sync, what I don’t love is that if I don’t open OmniFocus on my iPad or iPhone after I ‘finish’ tasks a reminder will still pop up. I would love for it to be able to sync in the background at regular intervals (perhaps in the future push syncing). In fact I would love that for Instapaper and plenty of other apps too.
I think many people would like that.
Android is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, iOS is better but still not perfect. We can only hope that Apple is working on bringing over the strengths in Android/WebOS/Windows Phone 7 to make iOS that much better.
Very interesting list and I would bet it will only grow as the iOS platform matures.
Very interesting list and I would bet it will only grow as the iOS platform matures.
Paul Graham: The iPhone isn’t so much a phone as a replacement for a phone. That’s an important distinction, because it’s an early instance of what will become a common pattern. Many if not most of the special-purpose objects around us are going to be replaced by apps running on tablets. He basically argues that…
Paul Graham:
The iPhone isn’t so much a phone as a replacement for a phone. That’s an important distinction, because it’s an early instance of what will become a common pattern. Many if not most of the special-purpose objects around us are going to be replaced by apps running on tablets.
He basically argues that tablets, such as iPhones/iPads, are going to be replacing a great many things in our lives and that is rather hard to argue with.
John Gruber for Macworld: It’s the heaviness of the Mac that allows iOS to remain light. Great insight.
John Gruber for Macworld:
It’s the heaviness of the Mac that allows iOS to remain light.
Great insight.
Nice round up of some items that I haven’ seen on many other sites this year. Be sure to check out the one I put together as well, you can check that out here.
Nice round up of some items that I haven’ seen on many other sites this year. Be sure to check out the one I put together as well, you can check that out here.
Shawn Blanc on Reeder for the Mac’s use of keyboard shortcuts: While the interface design of Reeder for Mac is gorgeous and polished, it seems as if each level of hierarchy stands a bit isolated. It is easy to navigate within the subscriptions list, it’s easy to navigate within a list of items, and the…
Shawn Blanc on Reeder for the Mac’s use of keyboard shortcuts:
While the interface design of Reeder for Mac is gorgeous and polished, it seems as if each level of hierarchy stands a bit isolated. It is easy to navigate within the subscriptions list, it’s easy to navigate within a list of items, and the individual item view is big and clear. But getting between one level to another is not so simple (unless you’re using the mouse).
I can’t say that I disagree with Shawn here, NetNewsWire (the only other OS X RSS reader that is worth a damn) does a great job of implementing keyboard shortcuts. Quite a few of you contacted me one way or another and your basic question was when I would be reviewing Reeder. The answer is not until it is a shipping 1.0 release, I just don’t think it is all that fair to review a product that came out less than a week ago, too much changes too fast.
I can’t fault Shawn for writing about this, and I agree it needs some work. That said the first update to Reeder since its public release has added more keyboard functionality. It seems that it is coming, but we can’t expect so much so fast.
Having said that Shawn hits some good points about the awkwardness of some of the iOS details of the app coming over to OS X.
Tom Engelhardt on how the war on terrorism and the TSA is spiraling out of control: Consider that a little parable about just how low this country has sunk, how psychologically insecure we’ve become while supposedly guarding ourselves against global danger. There is no question that, at the height of Cold War hysteria, when superpower…
Tom Engelhardt on how the war on terrorism and the TSA is spiraling out of control:
Consider that a little parable about just how low this country has sunk, how psychologically insecure we’ve become while supposedly guarding ourselves against global danger. There is no question that, at the height of Cold War hysteria, when superpower nuclear arsenals were out of this world and the planet seemed a hair-trigger from destruction, big and small penises were in play, symbolically speaking. Only now, however, facing a ragtag set of fanatics and terrorists — not a mighty nation but a puny crew — are those penises perfectly real and, potentially, completely humiliating.
Bare Feats: If these four tests are indicative, Lightroom is faster to process adjustments while Aperture is faster to process exports. This explains why I think Lightroom is faster, exporting is only a small part of what I do with images, and I rarely do it in large batches. Export tests are dumb in my…
Bare Feats:
If these four tests are indicative, Lightroom is faster to process adjustments while Aperture is faster to process exports.
This explains why I think Lightroom is faster, exporting is only a small part of what I do with images, and I rarely do it in large batches. Export tests are dumb in my opinion because it is going to take time no matter what, I want my workflow while I am at the machine to be fast. I can drink some scotch while stuff exports.
They are expecting to sell 1.5 million be year end. I don’t doubt it either.
They are expecting to sell 1.5 million be year end. I don’t doubt it either.
Rex Hammock on the Project “Magazine” iPad app: Here’s a suggestion, if you call something a “magazine,” maybe you can imagine (try very, very hard) that some people are attracted to magazines because they want to “read.” If you’re creating something for viewers or listeners or players, maybe use another metaphor than magazine — maybe…
Rex Hammock on the Project “Magazine” iPad app:
Here’s a suggestion, if you call something a “magazine,” maybe you can imagine (try very, very hard) that some people are attracted to magazines because they want to “read.” If you’re creating something for viewers or listeners or players, maybe use another metaphor than magazine — maybe call it a “media noise-maker app,” if all it does is package up bells and whistles.
Amazon Web Services: But, when companies or people go about securing and storing large quantities of data that isn’t rightfully theirs, and publishing this data without ensuring it won’t injure others, it’s a violation of our terms of service, and folks need to go operate elsewhere. Removing WikiLeaks because they don’t own the data makes…
Amazon Web Services:
But, when companies or people go about securing and storing large quantities of data that isn’t rightfully theirs, and publishing this data without ensuring it won’t injure others, it’s a violation of our terms of service, and folks need to go operate elsewhere.
Removing WikiLeaks because they don’t own the data makes sense and is a common reason for removing sites. Removing the site though because Amazon can’t be sure it won’t cause harm to others is noble, but an odd thing for this type of company to enforce.
How do you solve the problem of having too many ‘fart apps’ in your app store? If you are Apple the solution is to blanket ban any new ‘fart apps’, they also blanket banned any new radio apps the other week. I am all for it, in fact I think that perhaps Apple should be…
How do you solve the problem of having too many ‘fart apps’ in your app store? If you are Apple the solution is to blanket ban any new ‘fart apps’, they also blanket banned any new radio apps the other week. I am all for it, in fact I think that perhaps Apple should be more restrictive in what they let in to the App store and what they let stay in the app store.
I like choices as much as everyone, but there is a difference between having great choices and letting everything in. The best way I can think about this is a Las Vegas buffet, these buffets are huge and normally offer just about every cuisine choice out there. ((Not all of them, just a lot of them.)) On paper this sounds great, something for everyone if you will, in reality though it is simply overwhelming. When you get to such a buffet two things happen: you know you can’t try them all, and you have no clue which ones to try. Usually you can add to that the fact that most of the dishes are just average tasting.
This is the exact problem Apple’s iOS App store and Android’s Market are facing right now – too many options, not enough quality. So how do you cut down on options? Does Apple decide which apps stay and which apps go? I think they should, but it would be asking for developers to raise all hell if they went that route.
What if we inject some democracy into the App Store though?
Perhaps any app with a 100+ ratings that does not make it above 2 stars is removed from the store. You are allowed to resubmit the app, but only after significant changes are made. Apple would then decide whether or not to let it back in. Would that be fair?
I would love the app store even more if there was less crap and more quality apps – I think everyone would. There will always be those odd cases where some really great sounding app can’t get in, but I think we have proven that if we are vocal enough Apple will, at the very least, hear us. Precisely the reason I think we should let Apple start removing some of the crappier apps from the store.
I think it would be great if Apple made an arbitrary cap and said only the 50 highest rated Radio apps will remain in the store. Then if a developer is about to be removed she has 7 days to get her ratings back up or she is gone. Let’s breed competition, it’s good for all.
This accomplishes two things that the app store needs:
In order for any of this to work there needs to be some changes made to the rating system. First, developers need to be able to respond to reviews, either in the review stream (like how blog comments work/used to work) or via emailing that customer directly (perhaps using a masked email system through Apple). This will help to get rid of a lot of negative reviews due to what can only be called user stupidity (e.g. This app requires an online account that you have to pay for, even though it says that in the description – greedy bastards!).
Apple also would need to hold customers reviewing the apps to high standards. For instance: if you want to rate something below 3 stars you need to give a reason why. This could be accomplished via adding multiple choice type reasons (e.g. costs too much). Certain reasons when selected though would require more explanation, or action before you could leave that feedback – force reviewers to back up what they are saying when it is negative.
If you want to leave a 1-star rating because it crashed you can, but you must agree to allow Apple to let the developer contact you directly. If you want to leave a 1-star review because the price is too high, you need to write 10 words saying why you think it is too high.
A person should not be allowed to rate an app if the iOS device records that they have used it for less than some arbitrary amount of time (e.g. 15 minutes) and an app should be given a full 6 months to establish itself before it can be removed. If you just downloaded the app, used it for 5 seconds and then want to rate it – there is no way this should be allowed. If you allow this you might as well let people who have yet to install the apps rate them.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, each app shopper should be able to see what the person rating the app has rated other apps. Think about that for a second, would you care what Joe thought of this app if you see that he rates everything 5 stars, what about if he only rates things 1 star. Even better what if he only rates paid apps, to complain about the fact that they cost money? It would be nice to see what raters think of other apps, apps that perhaps you have already formed an opinion about.
As with anything there needs to be some exceptions in the App store. First categories like games should have no limit to the amount allowed, instead just getting rid of the low rated apps. Same goes for other categories where no two apps really can be the same.
Twitter apps though would not fall under this rule, those should have a limit, as should fart apps and tip calculators. There is many exceptions that would need to be put in place, and contrary to the way Apple works right now, these rules need to be spelled out to developers.
I want to stress that in doing this the idea is not to just rid the app store of crappy apps, instead the goal would be to change the app store from a place where finding good apps is like trying to find a needle in a haystack instead I want good apps to be staring you in the face. No, scratch that, good apps should be hitting you in the head.
I want to encourage both users and developers to raise their standards. I also want to force users to defend their ratings, and not allow developers who get crap into the app store to continue to pollute ((For lack of a better word.)) the environment.
I chatted with a few people about this, the question I was most often asked is why. After reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Tab and using Android for an extended period of time it was evident that the biggest difference between iOS and Android is Apps. Android lacks any good apps on the platform, without such apps Android is going to struggle to gain the popularity and love that people show towards iOS devices. ((Not talking about sales.)) I want iOS to shine because that is the platform that I use, the above argument though could easily be implemented with Android, changing the Android Market for the better.
More curation is not a bad thing for users, it is a great thing for users. For developers it is a cumbersome task, but if you succeed it will be well worth your effort. Think about it like baseball, there is a ton of kids who want to grow up to be in the Majors, these kids get cut down in drafts and minor leagues throughout the years. The minor leagues then get cut down to just a 25 man team in the Majors. What you see when you watch Major League Baseball is a carefully selected group of athletes, you don’t just see anyone who can swing a bat and throw a ball. ((Unless you were a Mariners fan this past season, God help us.))
Do you have any idea how crappy going to a baseball game would be if just anybody was allowed to play ((Again M’s fans know this already.)) , let alone if minor leagues played against major leaguers. In fact that is what the iOS app store is like, minor league players mixed in with major league players – I vote we only allow major league players. ((Android’s Market though is like letting anyone who can swing a bat play, truly.)) This also helps developers, a smaller pool of competition raises the rates you can charge, just look at some of the MLB salaries.
I am not trying to argue that we make the iOS app store so competitive and prohibitive that developers must raise the price of their apps in order to make it worth their while, a smaller selection means more sales for each developer (hopefully). What I want is an app store with consistently excellent quality through and through – I think we all want that.
This was too sweet not to post, the AP: Texas Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled to present the actor and executive director of “Walker, Texas Ranger” with a designation as an honorary member of the famed law enforcement group Thursday. Admit it, that made you smile a little.
This was too sweet not to post, the AP:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is scheduled to present the actor and executive director of “Walker, Texas Ranger” with a designation as an honorary member of the famed law enforcement group Thursday.
Admit it, that made you smile a little.
Bruce Schneier: What has happened to “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”? What indeed.
Bruce Schneier:
What has happened to “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”?
What indeed.
A very cool new hyperlink system from the New York Times that allows people to highlight a particular sentence they are trying to link to on The New York Times. Great stuff can’t wait for the WordPress plugin to come out, there is one that gives you paragraph links called WinerLinks, but it is not…
A very cool new hyperlink system from the New York Times that allows people to highlight a particular sentence they are trying to link to on The New York Times. Great stuff can’t wait for the WordPress plugin to come out, there is one that gives you paragraph links called WinerLinks, but it is not the same.
This looks really cool, only drawback is everyone in the meeting would need an iPad (if you can call that a drawback).
This looks really cool, only drawback is everyone in the meeting would need an iPad (if you can call that a drawback).
Have you ever heard of a little preference pane utility called Hazel? I use it everyday and it just may be the single most under appreciated app on my Mac. It is that good. Hazel basically allows you to preform preset actions based on a set of rules that you create. All of this sounds…
Have you ever heard of a little preference pane utility called Hazel?
I use it everyday and it just may be the single most under appreciated app on my Mac. It is that good. Hazel basically allows you to preform preset actions based on a set of rules that you create. All of this sounds rather boring – best just to share how I use Hazel.
Let’s start with the straight forward Trash options that Hazel provides, here is what mine looks like:
Essentially I have decided that I want day old items to never be in the trash, and I don’t want my trash to ever exceed 1GB in size. Pretty straight forward, the gem of this screen is the ‘Enable App Sweep’ checkbox, when activated (checked) this option will preform the same basic functions of a utility like AppZapper. The benefit though is that you can just delete the app like normal and Hazel will pop up an alert with additional files it wants to remove with the app. You don’t have to remember to drag apps you want to delete on to another app.
Pure gold I tell ya.
The Folders tab is where the heart of Hazel is, this is where the true power really can be unleashed. The uses are so great that I am just going to share a few ways that I use it.
I have two active rules in the downloads folder: ‘Ooops Files’ and ‘Move Torrents’.
Ooops Files is a little rule that I have which deletes any file in my Downloads folder that has an ‘.html’ file extension. Why? Simple, sometimes I hit ‘option’ instead of command when I click a link, which of course downloads the link. It actually happens only a few times a week, but Hazel saves me from ever having to see those files that I accidentally download. I never keep ‘.html’ files in this folder anyway so it all works out rather well.
The next little rule is to move torrent files out of my downloads folder. I don’t run bit-torrent on my MacBook Air, but I do run it on my Mac mini that is back at my house. I would never remember to send those files to that machine for download, so I enlisted Hazel to do the task for me. All this rule does is takes any ‘.torrent’ files and moves them to a specific folder in Dropbox. That folder is watched by the Mac mini and Torrent files auto-start once they are detected.
The next folder that I run Hazel rules on is the Desktop itself – I cannot stand to have anything stored there; but there are times when it is the most convenient place to “hold” a file. I still though do not want to be forced to remember to clean off all the files, when Hazel could do it for me.
I take any file that sits on the desktop and has not been opened in the last hour and move it to my Inbox folder that resides in Dropbox. Now, this works great 99% of the time. It fails miserably when I forget and leave a few movies or folders of pictures that I am working with, that will kill your Dropbox size allotment very quickly – pay attention.
I run three actions in my ‘Inbox’ folder, which is the folder that I keep all active work in. ((Of course this folder resides in Dropbox too.)) The first action changes the color of the files label to red if it has not been opened in the last day. The second action changes the files label to none if it has been opened in the last 3 hours. The final action moves any file that has not been opened in the last 2 weeks and modified in the last 3 days to a folder aptly named ‘to file’.
Ok so the first action is flagging items that are not really active, and perhaps that I should delete or archive.
The second action reverses the first rule if I open the file, opening the file signifies to me that I am still actively using it.
The last action simply gets the file out of my active files list. NOW, the last rule is a two parter where two conditions must be met for an important reason. I keep sub-folders within the ‘inbox’ folder and without the ‘modified’ rule these folders will get moved out; even if they have files in them that I have been using lately. Basically so long as I am actively using the files in the sub-folders on a regular basis, the folder will remain un-touched. The reason for 3 days is because it accounts for the weekend nicely.
That’s how I keep my inbox folder organized.
This folder is just a single rule thing, if a file in the folder has not been opened for 3 weeks (one week after it was moved to the folder) then a Growl notification pops up reminding me to empty the folder out. The same nag will pop up if there is a file that is greater than 1GB in the folder. This folder though is kept outside of Dropbox so that it can hold much larger files with no consequences.
Without these reminders I have a tendency to forget about this folder…
That is how I use Hazel.
Hazel is one of those utilities that molds to how you work and it is incredibly powerful and flexible. A good way to get going with Hazel is to install it and then pay attention to what you do on the computer. If you find yourself doing the same task over and over again, see if you can create a Hazel rule to accomplish that task for you. I am using very simple rules, but you can have Hazel execute shell/apple/automator scripts to really make it do some cool stuff.
One thing I have been toying with is creating folder that auto-resizes and renames images for posting inline on this site, using Automator and Hazel to do that upon dumping pictures in a folder. In fact I think I’ll go do that now…
Ok done, works like a charm, gives me a reason to not delete Automator from my Mac.
Give Hazel a try, I think you might like it.
Will Wilkinson: Today, there are millions upon millions of government and corporate employees capable of downloading massive amounts of data onto tiny devices. The only way WikiLeaks-like exposés will stop is if those with the permissions necessary to access and copy sensitive data refuse to do so. But as long as some of those people…
Will Wilkinson:
Today, there are millions upon millions of government and corporate employees capable of downloading massive amounts of data onto tiny devices. The only way WikiLeaks-like exposés will stop is if those with the permissions necessary to access and copy sensitive data refuse to do so. But as long as some of those people retain a sense of right and wrong—even if it is only a tiny minority—these leaks and these scandals will continue.
Great point. So let’s all forget about the “international albino of mystery”.