Greg In The Desert

Apple announced their worst kept secret, their Apple tablet computer called the iPad. It’s exactly what what it was rumored to be, a oversized iPod Touch. The iPad will run all the apps the iPhone and iPod touch will run but it’s missing a camera and GPS. Apple says they got 10 hours of use out of it, it will come with WiFi but a 3G cellular data option is available (and unlocked).

I think every rumor, including the prototype pictures at engadget and interview with McGraw-Hill’s CEO and President (Update: McGraw-Hill might have been punished for making the comments about the iPad before it was released), were all sanctioned by Apple. It was just enough to keep the hype and Steve Job’s reality distortion field in place but not enough to actually reveal the device.

I can’t imagine I will purchase an iPad as soon as it comes out (which is not for another 60 to 90 days) I do hope that parts of it make it into Apple’s laptops before my next laptop purchase. I also was hoping for an iPhone OS 4.0 and iLife 2010 announcement.

As I try to get back into posting interesting iPhone applications, I am still surprised at the amount of crap that is available to the iPhone store. Mac users always complained that sure, Windows has a more software available to it but most of it is crap. I think that is true with the iPhone.

The Wordpress App is not one of those crap applications (that is, is you have a Wordpress installation you can use it with). I’m not sure why they created an all new iTunes entry for the 2.0 app when both the 1.0 and 2.0 apps are free.

Although I find the iPhone to difficult to write entire blog posts on, the Wordpress app is great for creating basic drafts that get me started, fixing existing posts and managing comments.

Wordpress 2 is available on the iTunes store for free.

WordPress 2 is the only iPhone app that lets you write posts, upload photos, edit pages, and manage comments on your blog from your iPhone or iPod Touch. With support for both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress, users of all experience levels can get going in seconds.

What’s new in version 2.0:

- A new, more efficient user interface that makes it faster to switch between comments, posts, and pages.
- Various user interface refinements and bug fixes
- New Comments interface, with Gravatars and the author URL shown in the comment list
- Passwords are now stored in the keychain
- Posts are now automatically saved and restored if network connection is lost during publishing
- Added persistence, so the app re-opens in the blog you last used
- Added an interface for manually entering the XMLRPC endpoint for non-standard setups
- Fixed rotation-related visual glitches
- Fixed errors where malformed XML prevented access to XMLRPC endpoint
- Fixed edge case where local drafts were sometimes not saved
- Fixed the order of photos so that they’re displayed in the order they’re uploaded

For support, please visit our forums at http://iphone.forums.wordpress.org — we aren’t able to respond to support requests submitted in an iTunes review.

KOB recently did an interesting article on a group of independent iPhone developers in Albuquerque who work at a coffee shop and call themselves the Cocoa Conspiracy. The group includes Andrew Stone of Stone Design who has a number of both Mac and iPhone applications.

Apparently Stone Design’s Twittelator Pro is doing well. The article also talks about a very cool sounding hot air balloon and chase crew app.

“It can actually overlay the chase group’s position and the balloon’s location and speed over a map live. That way people can plan their routes to get to the balloon and where it’s going to land,”

That’s an awesome idea, I wish I would have thought of it. Albuquerque has “Largest balloon convention in the world” according to Wikipedia so it’s fitting that a app like this should be developed in Albuquerque.

I want to hook up with these guys perhaps they can give me some help in developing my own apps. The article fails to mention what coffee shop the “The Cocoa Conspiracy” hang out at.

When Twitter first came out, I didn’t see the value of it. Much like every other new internet thing (like blogging) I became involved with it eventually. A little over a year ago I signed up on Twitter and have been following about 90 people. Despite it’s growing popularity I have not logged into the site in about a month. I don’t miss a thing.

The first problem: if I have more than maybe a dozen people I follow, it’s difficult to see what’s been going on since I last logged in. The best I can do is to scroll through the website, click the “load more” button at the bottom of the page and try to remember where I left off. Twitter really needs a summary page that shows what I’ve missed. I’ve tried using apps like Twitteriffic with Growl to show on screen updates people make updates, but that got annoying after a while.

The next problem: it’s nearly impossible to follow threads of conversations. More often than not when I log in I see @ replies about some subject that interests me but can’t tell much in 140 characters. I can click on the users name and then go to their list of updates and try find what the original subject was about, but that probably wont happen. THe original subject is forever lost. Twitter really needs a threaded view.

Finally there’s what I call following spam. When someone new starts following me I look first to see what kind of updates they have posted, so I know if they are writing things I’m interest in. I also look to see how many people they follow. If someone has less than a few hundred people they follow it’s conceivable that they might actually reading what others are writing. When someone follows me with thousands of followers I know they are only following me with the hopes that I will follow them back. They have been listening to some social media douche bag expert who says they can sell more things by being on Twitter.

Following spam doesn’t actually affect me that much other than to annoy, but it indicates where Twitter is going. Along with issues like the ones I mentioned here and other annoying issues like short URLs, Twitter is just becoming a waste of time instead of a useful service where I can learn new things.

• Intel's Barrett to retire as tech crisis simmers – Forbes.com
  Intel Corp said Friday that Chairman Craig Barrett, the former academic credited with building the company into the world's foremost chip maker, will retire in May after 35 years with Intel.
• GeoEye › Gallery
  This half-meter resolution image of the United States Capitol, Washington D.C. was collected by the GeoEye-1 satellite on Jan. 20, 2009 to commemorate the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The image, taken through high, whispy white clouds, shows the masses of people attending the Inaugural Celebration.
• iPhone Twitter App Battlemodo: Best and Worst Twitter Apps for iPhone
  (tags: iphone application twitter)

Now that the iPhone App store has been fully operational for several months, I have wasted money on many applications that I used once and regret spending money on. However a few applications have made it to my first screen (you an fit 20 including the dock) to stay for a while. Half of them are default Apple applications: Calendar, Notes, Contacts, Calculator, Camera, Safari and Mail with the phone and SMS apps in the dock. Here are the 10 applications which make up the rest. These should all work on the iPod Touch.

• Things ($9.99). A ToDo list is a necessity and it has to sync with my Mac for easy data entry. I checked out OmniFoucs even before there was a iPhone Version ($19.99). I found OmniFocus too complicated where Things is more self explanatory on the iPhone and Mac. Price was also an issue, since I didn’t want to pay a lot of money for an application that I would end up not using. Possible future replacement: Life Balance ($19.99). I used Life Balance on my Palm but it wasn’t out in time for me to try it out. I haven’t looked at the iPhone version too closely but the palm version synced with both Mac and Windows.
• iStockManager (Free). Although I don’t trade stock with great frequency, I do monitor stock prices on a regular basis (as sort of a social activity). Having the ablity to trade stock is a plus however and iStockManager allows trading through Ameritrade. I initially had some problems with the application, it turns out I needed to set up options within my Ameritrade account. Thankfully, iStockManger support was excellent. Previously used: Bloomberg (free). Doesn’t attach to a trading account but does the job of tracking stocks.
• Twinkle (Free). I was a Twinkle user when you could only install apps on jailbroken phones and haven’t tried any other twitter apps. I’m not a frequent twitter-er, so I probably wouldn’t need a power user app.
• NetNewsWire (Free). I was already a user of NetNewsWire on the Mac therefore using the iPhone version was logical. I have hundreds of feeds and check them all day long. There’s a number of improvements that NNW needs, I’m looking forward to a update.
• Gas Cubby ($4.99). I’m a automobile tracking fanatic. I used TealAuto on my PalmOS device and it’s annoyed me not to be able to find a good tracking app on the iPhone. I’ve tried several and recently started using Gas Cubby. So far I like what I’ve seen and will stick with it.
• Delivery Status Touch ($0.99). I’ve used the Delivery Status dashboard widget for some time to track my UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc deliveries and having a iPhone version is nice. The latest version sync with the devlopers servers which makes it easy to enter tracking information from the computer to the phone.
• Klick (Free). Klick is an app for viewing and uploading images on Flickr. I especially like the ability to find pictures uploaded near me, however they don’t update often since most people don’t geotag their photos.
• The Weather Channel (Free). As the first review on the iTunes store says, “Finally a good weather app that isn’t 9.99”. My problem with the other weather apps I’ve tried isn’t that they are $9.99, the problem is they weren’t good and were $9.99.
• Stanza (Free). An extremely well designed ebook reader with a built-in “store” of free, out of copyright books. There’s also a desktop companion for syncing your own ebooks and PDFs.
• Remote (Free). Apple’s remote application for us with iTunes and Apple TV. I use it for both.

Although no games are on my first screen, I can’t help recommend a few that I recently played.

• Touch Physics ($0.99). Although there are desktop versions of this game, it’s new to me and I found it very original and challenging.
• Jelly Car (Free). I’m having a particlualry diffuclt time with this game and yet I cannot stop.
• PAC-MAN Lite (Fr
  ee). When I get good at the free version, I might check out the paid version: PAC-MAN ($5.99).

Have a suggestion for an alternative listed here? Let me know in the comments.

With my move to a Intel based Mac, I’ve enjoyed the performance of all the iLife apps. Especially iMovie. Unfortunately all the add ons and plug-ins are not functional unless they are also Intel native. In the case of iMovie, there’s not a lot of choices.

Here’s who I’ve found to be compatible:

• GeeThree – Has recenetly updated all their plug-ins to be Intel compatible.
• ImageIP – says all of their plug-ins are Intel compatible

These don’t appear to be compatible.

• cf/x – Not updated since 10.2
• stupendous software – No update on their since isnce Feb 2004, also didn’t respond to my emails. Update: They say their plug-ins will be Intel compatible in August.
• eZedia – Their plug-ins appear to be iMovie HD 6 compatible not Intel compatible.
• Virtix – Doesn’t appear to be updated since iMovie 4.

I think I got them all covered, except for freeware plugins. GeeThree has the best selection but they are pretty expensive. Their Slick 10 costs as much as iLife itself, which prices me out.

I’ve got my copy of iLife now. I’ve been playing around with iWeb for a few hours and I can say that I’m impressed. The ease of creating a web pages in the WYSIWYG editor is done in only the way that Apple can do. The resulting pages look just like what was in the editor. It’s a great solution for a newbie or experienced user alike, except that it’s lacking several features that a experienced blogger would miss.

When you create a new page for your site it brings up a window that lets you pick a template and the type of page you want to make. It’s nice that you can mix and match templates inside your site. The template styles all have the same looks as the templates with the other iLife apps. With a choice of twelve templates, your not likely to have a original site. There doesn’t seem to be anyway to make new templates or modify the existing ones. Hopefully someone figure out the format or apple will release a spec or template editor. The templates are individual files located in the package contents of the application so it seems they were designed to be modular.

There are three basic type of pages, the static page (welcome, about me and movie pages), the blog style pages (blog and podcast) and the photo pages. All of them are easy to edit. The text areas, pictures and other elements are all resizable end editable. Just like you would expect with a WYSIWYG type editor and in the typical “monkey could do it” Apple way. It’s easy to make these pages. A interesting item to note is text which is made with non standard font is turned into a graphic image.

Nothing fancy about the static pages. The photo pages have a high degree of integration with iPhoto, like no other application I know of. When you want to add photos you simply drag them in and publish. The blog portion is what interested me the most. I’m looking for a great blogging application with a high level of integration with .mac. Unfortunately iWeb is not that application. Although it has the great WYSIWYG editor, it’s missing the important elements of a blog. No comments, no side bars and no template editing. You get a front page that lists the entries (no control over the number of entries), a entry page and a archives page. The archives page simply lists all entries by date but has no other navigation such as calendar. A newbie may like the simplicity but a experienced blogger, such as myself, will be frustrated with the lack of typical blog layout options.

I’ve set up my own page using iWeb located here. Another non-feature is the ability to control the URL of the pages within .Mac. iWeb is a great idea but is very much the 1.0 application. Hopefully future version will address the shortcomings and make for a killer blogging application.