The iPad App I Need

Since nobody seems to care about the lack of a decent blogging app for iPad, I decided to come out with my own post about it. I’ve been thinking about this for months now (since April, the day after I got my iPad), and while I thought I could maybe find the time to look for an iOS developer and start my own “team of two” to develop the app, I just don’t want to wait anymore. So developers, here’s what I - and hundreds of other bloggers using an iPad - need. Read more

Free Your Mac’s Media Keys from iTunes→

Free Your Mac’s Media Keys from iTunes

The tricks we used before were far less than ideal, requiring you to start up Quicktime in the background, or do some serious hacking to system files within iTunes.app. NoMitsu has created a one-click installer that patches the remote control daemon, the app responsible for managing the media keys. Just download the patch and double-click on it. After entering your password, your media keys will be free from iTunes’ grasp.

I installed this and it works perfectly.

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Not Your Ordinary $100 iPhone Stand

What’s $100 to a loyal Apple supporter like yourself? Instead of keeping that Benjamin tucked away in your wallet, why not use it as an iPhone or iPod Touch stand?

In this dated YouTube video from December 2007, photographer Enrique Pardo uses his origami skills to fold a $100 bill into a stand for an iPhone or iPod touch. Those of you on a budget, go for a Lincoln or even a Washington, but make sure it’s nice and crisp. [via TUAW] Read more

My Must-Have 20 iPad Apps

Following yesterday’s post about the must-have Mac apps I install every time I have to play with a new installation of OS X, I thought it would be interesting to talk about my iPad setup as well.

Of course the iPad is a different machine from MacBooks: not just because it’s an entirely new kind of computing machine, the concept of “OS installation” itself is radically different. On OS X, installation is a clunky process that can take up to several minutes at best; as for the transition from an OS to another, OS X doesn’t come with the simple Backup / Restore system iOS  has. Sure you have Time Machine and Migration Assistant, but those tools aren’t as consumer-friendly as iOS and iTunes.

Speaking of which, that’s exactly what makes iOS different: iOS devices live inside iTunes. iTunes handles the updates, backups, restores, fresh installations and applications. For these reasons, installing apps on an iPad running a fresh new OS is a different story then OS X. Most users have never messed with restore and betas, so they never really had to deal with “starting anew all over again”. I did, and here are the apps I install every single time my iPad needs to be synchronized for the first time. My must-haves. Read more

What If iChat Was One Window?→

What If iChat Was One Window?

Adium and several other clients are already part way there—they combine all the services into one list, but they still typically show one window for friends, another for open chats and a third for file transfers.

I’m finding more and more that the best way to design desktop apps is to imagine you’re building them for iOS.

Clever UI concept by Bjango.

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Chromium OS and iPad: The Video

So you thought Hexxeh was joking about Chromium OS running on the iPad. Some of you even commented on his blog pointing out the usual story of EXIF data and Photoshop. Well guess what, he wasn’t joking. Chromium OS on the iPad seems to be real, and this time we have a video to see in action.

The video is pretty short and doesn’t show much, but from what we can see the build looks a little bit laggy - but working. Touch sensitivity is (kinda) working, and he even tries to install a Spotify extension in the browser. Check it out below, and hit Hexxeh’s original post (continually updating) here. Read more