Posted: November 13th, 2007 | Author: will | Filed under: apple, misc. | Comments Off
So one of the super annoying things I’ve been having to do lately is find someone to build a fence for me. I’ve been using Angie’s List, and while that site is generally fine, there’s no bookmarking feature, which is criminal at best. After a couple sessions scouring through 50 carpentry listings, only to forget names, numbers etc. the next time I want to access that info, I just started taking screengrabs of the page.
So, this was a pretty desperate idea to begin with, but with Leopard’s quick view thing, saving information this way is actually practical. By browsing to a folder I’ve kept these screengrabs in, I can quickly use coverflow to blast through the listings, and quickly preview the image to get the info I need.
Posted: October 29th, 2007 | Author: will | Filed under: apple, misc. | Comments Off
I swear to god, amazon… if my Leopard Pre-order doesn’t come until Nov. 8, I’m disowning you.
Posted: October 23rd, 2007 | Author: will | Filed under: apple, games, music | Comments Off
self explanatory. Get your own here.
Posted: September 13th, 2007 | Author: will | Filed under: apple, business, ideas, misc., music | Comments Off
John Gruber has a really nice writeup about the ongoing iTunes ringtone saga. However, what he doesn’t mention is that apple has actually created a really badass way to actually create ringtones, and one that reveals a key difference between songs and ringtones . Gruber notes that
The distinction between ringtones and songs is an artificial marketing construct.
In terms of purchasing and copyright, he’s correct, and I obviously agree with all the ridiculous overcharging for stuff you’ve already paid for. In terms of everything else, the difference between ringtones and songs is immensely huge. First of all, most songs act as crappy ringtones. I’ve dug through some of my music, made some ringtones from songs, and about 10% work well as ringtones. (and even those that worked required some pretty tenacious editing to get the start and end points of the loop right.) Ringtones are not songs, and songs are not ringtones, from a content perspective. They serve entirely different purposes.
With respect to this difference, Apple has to be given some credit for doing what they could within the confines of their relationship with the recording industry, which sees ringtones not as songs, but as another revenue business – the same as selling a t-shirt or a concert ticket. The majority of the public won’t want to use an audio editor to set start/end points for the ringtone, and apple has created a really nice, easy way for normal people to make decent ringtones from songs. Simply letting people choose a song as a ringtone might not work in most cases, especially if the song starts out with a 20 second fade up. Apple’s editor at least allows people to try and extract a suitable ringtone experience from a musical context.
Posted: August 28th, 2007 | Author: will | Filed under: apple, design, mobile | Comments Off
Nice article regarding web development for Mobile Safari. My impression of where were at right now with mobile internet browsers is basically that things are headed in a really good direction, with questions regarding development in this space becoming far less frustrating.
One one hand, Mobile Safari is powerful enough that when connected to wifi, it hardly matters at all how “mobile optimized” a web site is. On the other hand, when connected to the GSM Edge network, you really appreciate sites that are a bit more stripped down. This conversation is much less annoying than the conversations about WAP.
My general feeling is that the design of the page is less important than the functionality, or intent of the person browsing the phone, mobile style. I mean, obviously these things are related, but what I’m getting at is that the user’s Intent is perhaps different when accessing a site from their iPhone vs. accessing the same site from their PC/Laptop, and that these type of considerations should be made in addition to thinking about like, if that flash file is going to make the page look weird.
Posted: August 27th, 2007 | Author: will | Filed under: apple, design | Comments Off
Dave Shea has a nice graphic detailing the waste associated with his recent purchase of an apple keyboard.
Today really threw that into sharp relief. A couple of weeks back Apple came out with a new keyboard, and due to the local Mac retailers not receiving their shipments immediately, I decided to order direct from Apple. I picked up the box today, and expecting something vaguely keyboard-sized, I nearly choked when the receptionist pulled out a rather large box. Inside of which was another box. Inside of which was another box. Not to mention the plastic.
Posted: August 14th, 2007 | Author: will | Filed under: apple, apps | 1 Comment »
Wow, what a nice implementation and idea behind a really simple concept. Dave Dribin’s app The Bouncer won him 3rd Place at Iron Coder Live, C4[1] Edition.
There’s something very elegant about the simplicity of this app, and seeing interface objects and animations perform outside of the context of their intended function is, in this case, a beautiful thing. Dave’s also made The Bouncer’s source code available, which uses his DDHidLib.
