Taking A Step Back

A friend of mine once asked me why he would ever need to install applications other than games on his iPhone, while he could do most of the things he needed by simply opening Mobile Safari. He’s not new to the iPhone platform: he bought an iPhone 3G in 2008 and finally switched to the iPhone 4 a few weeks ago. He reads blogs to stay updated about what’s new in iOS 4, the latest Apple news and games updates. Yet, he doesn’t install apps to “do stuff” on his iPhone, because he says Safari is such a good browser he doesn’t need to “spend money on additional apps”.

Maybe he’s missing out the best part of iOS, or maybe we, as geeks, need to take a step back and reconsider what we’ve done so far. Read more

WordPress Updates Its iOS App with Video, Autosave, WordPress 3.0 Compatibility

Well finally, I would say: after a whole summer spent looking for a decent blogging app for iPad (and to an extent, for the iPhone as well) looks like we might just have a decent WordPress app here.

The latest 2.6 version that just became available in iTunes introduces support for video, a new autosave feature to go back to a previous version of a post, a brand new media library interface. The local drafts system has been completely overhauled (quite frankly, it sucked), tons of bug fixes and enhancements are in the update, together with full WordPress 3.0 compatibility (about time).

We’ll see how this will hold up to regular daily usage. In the meantime, you can go download the free universal app here, and take a look at the full changelog and screenshots after the break. Read more

An API To Keep Track Of User Position in Twitter Timeline→

An API To Keep Track Of User Position in Twitter Timeline

I use Hibari on my desktop, Twitter on my iPhone, and rotate between Twitter and Twitterrific on my iPad. And the experience of Twitter client hopping sucks. That’s because when I switch from one to the other, no client has any idea where I left off in the other. I either skip chunks of tweets against my will, or need to scroll through oodles of tweets I’ve already read.

There’s a better way. And it shouldn’t be on the customer’s side to deal with. This is a problem Twitter developers can and should solve.

I’m proposing — and hosting — an API through which different Twitter clients could painlessly keep track of where users are in their timelines.

Developers: please start supporting this.

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Ringer Profiles for iPhone→

Ringer Profiles for iPhone

Your iPhone would know you’re inside a movie theatre and would automatically set it to “Movie” mode. It’d know when you’re home. When you’re in the office, and when you’re at your second girlfriends house where it would not show a preview of any new text messages (hehe).

The built-in GPS could turn on Airplane Mode when you enter an airport. It could change your roaming and data settings when you’re in a country other than your own. It could even use GPS in combination with the built-in sensors to determine if you’re moving (i.e. on a playing soccer, dancing, or going for a jog.

Together with a Services menu and a new notification system, that’s what I hope to see in iOS 5.

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Apple Help Wanted: HTML5 Job

Apple is looking for a Creative Technology Manager to help out in their “creative technology team” on the Apple.com website. The focus will be HTML-5 based content ready for iOS devices like iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches.

This individual will be responsible for driving web-standard (HTML5) innovation that enhances and redefines the marketing of Apple’s products and services to millions of consumers. Work will also include exploring opportunities with apple.com, email and mobile/multi-touch experiences on the iPhone and iPad.

Apple already has some HTML5 features to its website. There’s the new movie showtimes section, part of the Movie Trailers page that works on a desktop or iOS device. In August, “Compare Macs” was added to the Apple.com store. Read more

My Must-Have 25 Mac Apps

Over the years I’ve had to mess with many OS X installations, backups, failures and restores. That’s just the usual life of a OS X geek in a place where people are scared of leaving their Windows PCs, but really would like to get a Mac. In fact, I’m quite proud of all those friends of mine I’ve managed to convince to get on the other side, but I’m even more proud of them because now they’re teaching the basics to someone else. This is the usual chain of events in a life of a standard OS X geek.

Having to deal with installations and restores, I’ve come to the point where I know exactly which apps to install depending on what that user needs, and how. A good friend of mine was so used to Firefox I had to bet (I’m serious) that he would like Safari more if only he gave it a chance. But that’s not the main story here. Over the years I created some sort of personal list of the first apps I install on a fresh new Mac every single time, right after the Network preferences are set up and ready to go. This list, which by no means used to exist on a physical side, is now embedded below for future reference (either mine, or my friends’) and you, who may find a couple of hidden gems in there.

It’s not a huge roundup, and it’s not for every one. These are not my favorite apps: these are first 25 Mac applications I install every time I have a fresh OS to play with, and they’re pretty great. You can call them my must-haves. Read more

No AirPlay For Video Until November→

No AirPlay For Video Until November

Engadget reviewed the AppleTV box today and got some more details on Apple’s new service (better HD quality than Amazon – nice!).  We had thought the previous reviewers forgot to try out Airplay on a 4.2 Beta iOS device.  But it turns out that even the 4.2 betas don’t yet allow AirPlay video to happen.

That’s bad news for developers who are running betas, but it makes sense for Apple to ship a feature when everyone can access it. I guess the Apple TV will get 4.2 in November as well, together with all the other iOS devices.

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MarkdownNote Is The Best App To Write In Markdown On The iPad

Markdown writers and iPad users, rejoice: a new app just came out in the App Store and it’s quite possibly the best choice you have to write using John Gruber’s popular text format on the iPad. I used to write in plain Markdown on the iPad in Simplenote and then do a desktop-side conversion to HTML using Clipmenu’s built-in Markdown tool, but with MarkdownNote by Coding Robots I can now simply write, and send myself an email with the text already correctly converted. Read more