Take that Duke Nukem.

It’s been almost two months since Apple released the Messages beta, the revamped version of iChat slated to arrive with Mountain Lion this summer. And, thanks to a lack of subsequent updates, I and at least a few of my colleagues have jumped ship back to our pre-Messages IM clients. Those who haven’t, well, I’ve noticed they seem to spend a lot of time cursing at Messages.

I knew what I was getting into with the Messages beta when I downloaded it. I knew there would be a few bugs and that, in general, it wouldn’t be the best experience. The Apple experience. But there hasn’t been a single update to make it better and, as it stood, Messages was a terrible, terrible experience.

I’ve since attempted to roll back to iChat which is supposed to be possible since Messages comes with an uninstall routine built-into the menu. But I’ve since not been able to get iChat to work. Even after trashing every file I can possibly find related to iChat.

So, I’m using Adium – which I think is also terrible – until Mountain Lion comes. What a mess!

1. Open Messages.
2. Close your buddy list window.
3. Click the full-screen icon on your main Messages window.
4. Choose Window > Buddies (or CMD+1)
5. Enjoy.

/tip Kyle “I’ve only been to White Castle once” Slattery.

I’m very much looking forward to Mountain Lion’s consolidation of two of these. Serenity Caldwell for Macworld reports:

Software Update, possibly the slowest Apple program on your Mac, is saying goodbye in Mountain Lion. Instead, the App Store will be handling any system patches, along with updates for your Mac App Store programs. And as a bonus, Notification Center will alert you in the background when updates are available, saving you five minutes of staring at the “Checking for new software” window.

This is great. I hope Notification Center also notifies me of updates that are available in iTunes too; iPhone and iPad applications, Podcasts, episodes of my TV shows, etc.

/via John “Have you seen my iPod nano?” Gruber.

Today Apple updated iBooks to version 2 which can now display much more interactive books than it did previously. While iBooks has been a terrific reading experience (I use it as my primary way to read books and PDFs) this new version can display textbooks created by Apple’s latest Mac app – iBooks Author.

iBooks Author, which is somehow completely free, is a Mac app that makes it simple to build interactive textbooks for iPad and iBooks 2. Not only does it work a lot like Pages for laying out a page of text, images and other elements, it also includes other interactive features like quizes, slideshows, videos, and more. It even makes it simple to add a glossary to a book. I imagine that iBooks Author has just become the worlds best book publishing application.

The iTunes U application gives teachers and students a way to interact together as well as with the iTunes U content available on the App Store. I don’t have much of an opinion about this application yet but it looks like a useful tool and it is also being offered for free.

These are amazing tools. Now lets see what the world chooses to do with them.

Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET.

/via CNet.

While the Apple TV Netflix UI is still better this version for iOS is vastly improved.

I think it is a good thing for the official applications to all feel and work very much the same. However, for obvious reasons long-time users of Twitter may feel the changes are a bit jarring. John Gruber rips into Twitter for iPhone by comparing it to Tweetie (which is what the application started out as). Mike Rundle rips into the app on its own merits.

Some TweetDeck users seem to like the update since prior to this latest version the application was a horrible Adobe AIR application that (at least in my experience) was slow, poorly designed, and bloated. This latest version seems better.

I don’t use Twitter for iPhone or TweetDeck and I only use the Twitter.com website on rare occasions. I’m very, very happy with Tweetbot.

I found a few things mentioned in the post interesting.

“Coda 2 has now been in development for about a year and a half.”

Three years ago I published an interview with Panic and they seemed to indicate that they were already working on Coda 2 but I guess they didn’t start on it officially for another 18 months. I don’t think they tried to trick us (or me) deliberately but I thought it was interesting considering how early we, the people, were asking Panic to begin working on Coda 2. Amazing insight.

So, when will it ship? Coda 2 is an extremely complex and multi-layered app, and it will take significant time to test, debug, and improve. That means there are many, many more months ahead of us — this release is important and needs to be as close to perfect as possible. So, to those of you currently camped out on the street in front of our office: you’ll need to hang in there for a quite a while still. Thanks for your understanding while we test!

For Panic to come right out and say that it will be “many, many more months” before Coda 2 will ship is fantastic for its users in a number of ways. It is exactly the reason I published the interview with them focused on transparency in software development and not just about the next version of Coda. You’ll remember, if you’re a long-time reader of my blog, how excited I was that immediately following our interview Panic reached out to ask how they could be more transparent, and a bit later they got on Twitter and started a blog.

With this post Panic has educated Coda users so that they’ll know when to expect an update to Coda. They don’t think it is coming before the end of the year but will, more than likely, come sometime early next summer (my guess). This is huge. Over the next 8 or so months if you need an application that does more than Coda currently provides – you may want to look into investing in a different application for the time being. This is a decision that, before this blog came out, would have been very hard to make. Especially for larger development teams.

Imagine starting a company with three, five, or ten developers and that you wanted a license for each of them. You take a look at Coda’s features and you know that you’re developers require, or would prefer, an editor that does something that Coda currently does not. You can now know how long your investment will take take to make a return for you. Perhaps you pick up a Coda 1.x license. Perhaps you don’t. Now you know. Before you didn’t.

If you read my interview with them you’ll know that this is not the way Panic has always operated. In fact, it may not be the way that they prefer to work. But they’re doing it anyway. For you. Noodle that a while and then go thank Panic in their comments.

/via Shawn Blanc.

“I see normal people using iPads all the time, and I hardly ever see them using Safari, Calendar, Maps, or Music.”

Maybe I’m not what many would consider “normal” but I use the core iPad apps all the time. In fact, I spend most of my time using the core apps. In my post The iPad apps that I use most I failed to mention that the applications I listed were, in fact, in addition to the core apps. (I’ve since updated that post with an addendum.)

I can’t imagine someone using an iPad without using Safari. Though Marco lists Safari as an application he doesn’t see people using often he then says that one of the main apps they do use is a web browser. I’m not sure if that was by accident or he actually means a different browser than Safari.

In any case, I use these applications every time I use my iPad and I would think that for Amazon to jump into the tablet market and compete with the iPad (if that is indeed what they’re going to do) they’d definitely need to design some very good core applications. At least for this tablet user to consider giving one a try.

/via Brian Shaler.

For those that are unaware, prior to Lion installing an application on the Mac went something like this; download a .DMG file which would mount to your Mac much like putting a CD in the disk drive and dragging the application icon into your Applications folder. That’s it. Drag, drop, installed. To uninstall an application you just delete the application from your Applications folder. Done.

The caveats to this process were the need to unmount the DMG after you’ve installed the application and then trashing the leftover DMG files in people’s Downloads folder.

However, with Lion came the promise of simplifying this process even more. Why? Because, although the above process seems simple it wasn’t nearly as simple as Apple had managed to make installing and uninstalling applications from iOS. On iOS you open the App Store, click Install, the application’s icon shows up on your device’s Home Screen. If you’d like to uninstall the application you tap and hold the icon, an “x” shows up, click it and confirm that you want to uninstall the app. Very simple.

Lion wanted to bring this very same workflow to the Mac. The workflow goes very much the same; Install applications directly from the Mac App Store, the application’s icon shows up on Launchpad, click and hold to uninstall the app from your Mac.

However, on Lion not all applications are created equal. Some applications were installed prior to, or without the use of, the Mac App Store. Perhaps you downloaded the application from the web or you simply have it installed from long before Lion. Either way, these applications still show up on Launchpad – they just can’t be uninstalled from Launchpad.

Which is why I think uninstalling applications on Lion is arguably more difficult for some people because the workflow for one application is different than the workflow for another application. If Apple could have allowed for applications that were not installed via the Mac App Store to be uninstalled using the same workflow they would have. There must be some very good reasons why they can not – however, I thought that they should have at least showed a dialog to instruct the user on how they can uninstall the application anyway.

For instance, if I’ve got Launchpad open I can drag the application’s icon to Trash on the Dock. Shouldn’t this uninstall it? If I was in my Applications folder and did the very same thing it would. So why not from Launchpad directly to Trash? Why even allow me to drag it over the Trash? Why not show a message when I do this: “Sorry, but you’ll have to open Finder, navigate to your Applications folder, and remove the application from there manually.”

I’m not sure why Apple didn’t find some way to either make this easier or to inform the user how to accomplish this simple task. But a few years from now, when 90% of all installed Mac applications have been installed directly from the Mac App Store, Apple will no longer need or care to worry about this issue. And perhaps that alone is reason enough for them not to care about it now.

“Eventually, I (well, many of us) decided that better native clients (OSX, Windows, Linux, Eclipse, Visual Studio, etc) was the best way to grow GitHub.”

Boom.

You see, with one application GitHub has just expanded its potential customer base many times larger than it already is. GitHub isn’t just for command line elitists anymore. Now just about anyone that can use a Mac application, and understand what it is to commit a new version of their work here and there, can use Git and GitHub to help control their source.

Before today GitHub’s potential customer base, or target-market if you will, has been those that fully grok Git, the command line, and source control. Or, people willing to put in the work to go through the tutorials to become one of these people. Their website was simply icing on the cake for people already using that workflow. In fact, their service was so compelling that many have switched from other source control platforms to Git just to take advantage of GitHub. However, now for all of the designers, copywriters, hobbyists and even solo development shoppes that didn’t seen the need to learn and fully understand source control – Git just got easy and GitHub made it happen. And that is many, many, many people.

Some, including myself, would argue that this could breed a bunch of people that understand GitHub for Mac more than they understand Git. And I think it is fairly obvious that understanding Git, for any professional, is more valuable than understanding GitHub for Mac. However, now that I’ve thought it over for these last few hours I’m beginning to see this application as an extension of GitHub’s many other offerings to make Git easier. You see, GitHub has always provided documentation, events, online training and tools to try to make Git easier for everyone. If Git is easy to use more people will use it and therefore more people will sign up and pay for GitHub. GitHub for Mac is simply an extension of these educational efforts that GitHub has always offered since the beginning. It is yet another lily pad for people to jump on as they cross from shore to shore. Brilliant.

GitHub for Mac isn’t the first application to give Git a UI on the Macintosh but it is the first that came from the guys behind GitHub and that alone will be enough to make many people make the jump. It also helps that the application is very good. If they work as feverishly to keep GitHub for Mac up-to-date as they do all of their other services I think everyone will look back at this app’s launch as a major point in the company’s already incredible story.

I just did something I’ve been waiting months to do. I purchased Reeder for Mac from the App Store.

It isn’t very often that I am so anxious to pay for something that I have been using for free. In fact, I can’t remember any other application that I’ve wanted to purchase more than Reeder for Mac. For months I’ve been using Reeder for Mac’s “beta” builds and they have progressed steadily and swiftly from a pretty good application to an indispensable one. Its workflows are so well refined that it allows me to accomplish a task that – at one point in my life – used to take hours and hours of my time each day. With Reeder for Mac I’m able to keep up-to-date with everything going on in my world in only minutes per day instead of hours. I’m able to use the same workflows no matter which device I happen to currently be on because I use Reeder on my Mac, my iPad and my iPhone. In fact, I simply can not imagine owning a Mac, iPad or iPhone without having Reeder installed.

I suppose I’ve wanted to pay for the application for so long because I’ve wanted to put my money where my mouth was and to finally pay tribute to those that have worked so hard on it. To provide them with the resources they need to keep the application in existence and, dare I say, improve it. I’m really looking forward to the future of these applications.

So, I guess it goes without saying that I recommend you pick up Reeder for Mac too. Oh, and for iPad. Oh, and for iPhone. You’ll thank me later.

All good questions. Here is how I write on iPad.

First, I use an application called iA Writer. This application gives me a distraction free writing environment that has just the right amount of features to make writing easy.

I do not use nor own an external keyboard for iPad. Never have. In fact, the on-screen keyboard in Writer has a custom keyboard with few shortcuts that I find very convenient.

I also edit within Writer. I read and re-read (unless I’m in a rush for some reason) the post until I’m happy with it. At this point there is no HTML, no links, no images, no videos in the post.

I then copy and paste the text from Writer into WordPress for iOS. I immediately save the post as a Draft (just in case). At this point I’ll either add the links, images, or video. If there is a lot of media to add to the post I may wait until I’m on my MacBook Pro to finish the rest. Sometimes adding a lot of HTML to a post using iPad can be cumbersome. I’m hoping that WordPress for iOS, at some point, adds a custom keyboard for written HTML quicker.

When the post is finished I’ll then schedule it to be published, usually sometime in the morning the next day since I typically write at night or very early in the morning. This gives the post time to stew a bit and gives me a chance to yank it if I end up not feeling good about the post. It also gives my blog a feeling of consistent publishing rather than a sporadic schedule.

And that is how this post was written.

Firefox 4 was released today and once again I’m made to feel this same nauseating feeling. Every single time a new Browser is released, well Safari, Chrome, or Firefox (we’ll leave Internet Explorer, Opera and others out of this), I’m torn between making the jump from one browser to the other.

I’ve jumped around a lot over the years. And it always comes back to one thing that determines whether or not I use a Browser every day; speed. I don’t use many extensions, themes, or add-ons in any Browser. I had used Safari before it even supported such things. Speed, however, keeps me loyal to a Browser until – inevitably – the next-fastest Browser released pulls me away.

On the outset Firefox 4 feels very snappy. Just about as fast as Chrome (if not faster) and a lot faster than Safari. Chrome and Firefox 4 are now neck-and-neck for winning my default Browser of choice. But that’s today and I’m sure that won’t last long and, once again, I’ll be left with the nauseating choice of jumping ship.

Since posting about the iPhone apps that I use most I’ve had a few requests to do the same for the iPad. So, here are the iPad apps that I use most.

• Mail.app. I check, read, and write email on the iPad every single day. I actually prefer using the iPad to my computer for email. It forces me to be succinct and makes email fun again.
• Reeder. With Reeder on my iPhone, Mac and iPad I am able to keep up-to-date with my Google Reader account whenever I have time to read. In bed, on the go, and at my desk. Out of the three Reeder for iPad is the best.
• Instapaper. I tend not to use Instapaper on the iPhone all that often but I use it quite a bit on the iPad.
• Twitter for iPad. The Twitter application for iPad is better than any desktop or mobile application. It is just about every feature you could need or want.
• Dropbox. I share files between my iPad, iPhone and Mac using Dropbox more than any other way. And, having Notational Velocity + SimpleNote storing documents within my Dropbox share makes it easy for all of my devices to be wirelessly synced.
• SimpleNote. The only way I keep notes on my iPad/iPhone.
• Numbers and Pages. I use both of these applications fairly often. I bought them thinking that I would only open them occasionally but it turns out that having a real word processor and spreadsheet application is very handy.
• iThoughtsHD. I give a fair number of speeches and I like to use mind mapping for my speech outlines. On the go I use iThoughtsHD to put these maps together.
• VLC. Getting video into iTunes into the Videos app on the iPad is an exercise in frustration sometimes. VLC will playback just about any video and adding them to the iPad is a snap.
• Google Books. I read my books in Google Books so that I don’t have to buy books more than once (iBooks only works on iPad/iPhone).
• Angry Birds. The only game I keep on the iPad.

These are the applications that I use the most. I’m a fairly “light” applications user in that I spend a lot of time in a small amount of applications – rather than a little amount of time in a lot of applications. I see other people’s iPads and I wonder how they can possibly keep everything straight with so many applications.

There are, however, some applications that I use from time-to-time that deserve honorable mention. Flipboard, NPR, iSilo, iPod. Also, Devour.com is a great way to watch video on the iPad.

*Update 08/30/2011:* I failed to mention in this post that I use the core iPad applications (the apps that ship with the iPad by default) all the time. Safari, Mail, Maps, Music (iPod), Calendar – I use them all and often.

If you have any suggestions for applications that you think I would enjoy please feel free to send them along. My email address is on the front page of my site.

So it turns out my fears have been abated. The Mac App Store is great. Simply run Software Update on any Macintosh running Snow Leopard.

/via Dan Rubin on Twitter.

The new Reeder for Mac beta is out and it is wonderful. It ties together Reeder for iPhone and Reeder for iPad (both of which I’ve bought and paid for). I’m 100% sure that I will be purchasing Reeder for Mac too – when its fully baked.

My fears are being squelched. Sort of.

My iPhone homescreen

I’ve been using an iPhone for 3 1/2 years. I’m not of the sort that installs or purchases a lot of applications – but I have tried out a few over the years and some have stuck. They’ve stuck so well that I use them on a daily basis.

Here is a list of the applications that I use every single day.

• Camera – This may seem like a no-brainer but I use the camera application every single day. I do not have a point and shoot camera. I have an iPhone 4.
• Echofon – I use Twitter pretty heavily and my application of choice on the iPhone is Echofon. It has nearly every feature I could want – drafts, location, good searches, etc.
• Dropbox – Quite simply one of the best services to launch in the last few years. Sync files between just about everything over the web instantly.
• Facebook – I don’t do much with this app except check to see if anyone has commented on my status. But I check that at least a few times a day.
• iPod – I’m subscribed to a few podcasts (see 5by5, Fresh Air) and have about 2Gb worth of music for my weekly commute to work.
• Messages – With the original iPhone I didn’t SMS too often. With the iPhone 4 and being able to send MMS messages (images/video) I use it quite frequently. Actually, I’m surprised how often I send MMS.
• Mail – For all of my emailing needs.
• Clock – It has waken me up every morning for 3 1/2 years.

Here is a list of the applications that I use now and then, but have found a place on my iPhone and still recommend.

• Mapquest – Turn-by-turn directions right through my car’s stereo for free. Not as nice as Google Maps but Google Maps doesn’t offer turn-by-turn on the iPhone.
• Weightbot – Extremely simple weight tracking application. No frills. No social. Just stats.
• Square – I’ve yet to use this for any really good reason. But, it is nice to have.
• Angry Birds – Want to waste hours and hours? Get this game. Its great.
• Simplenote – Great way to sync notes back and forth between iPhone/iPad/Mac/Pc.
• Reeder app – Now that I have an iPad I don’t use this too often on the iPhone but it is still worthy of honorable mention for those that don’t have an iPad yet.
• Dictionary – I use this more often than I care to admit. But it is very handy.
• Instapaper – Like Reeder app – I use this on my iPad far more than on my iPhone. But if I only had an iPhone I’d use it all the time.

Like I said, I don’t have a ton of applications. I’ve seen other iPhone users with 9 home screens full of folders full of applications. Hundreds of applications installed on a single phone. That isn’t how I roll I suppose.

Next up, iPad applications that I use most.

Acorn, my photo editor and general image-manipulation application of choice for the Mac, has been updated and now includes a Tilt-Shift filter.

Above is an image I took with my first-generation iPhone in July 2007 in Philadelphia while attending BlogPhiladelphia. Acorn’s Tilt-Shift filter made an old photo interesting again.

Well done Gus.

Side note: OneWay is open source so there’s that.

/via TJ Luoma on TUAW.

“I sometimes sit and wonder what sort of applications could have been made for the Macintosh if, say, Apple had opened up an App Store that supported iPhone, iPad, and Mac? Would the river of money have been split into three smaller tributaries? Would people flock to the Mac the same way they have iPhone and now iPad? Arguably the main reasons people buy iPhones and iPads is the ease of finding/installing software and content. Imagine if things were that easy on the Mac. And imagine if developers were excited to build applications for the Mac again!”

Well, I needn’t wonder anymore. In answer to an email asking about a Mac App Store Steve Jobs has replied “Nope”.

I know developers wouldn’t want the closed nature of the current App Store in any type of Mac App Store but that doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be in favor of a Mac App Store to help promote/sell their applications.

Oh well, software on the Mac will have to find another way to survive.

I’m back to Safari. I still love Chrome but Safari’s latest update made it edge out Chrome for speed. Speed, it seems, is the killer feature for me in Web browsers.

Until this latest release the Top Sites page in Safari was too slow for me to find useful. Now, however, it is much faster and I’m liking it very much. I liked Chrome’s New Tab page a lot. However, unlike Safari it wasn’t really all that useful for more than giving you a clickable tile to go to your favorite sites. Safari’s Top Sites page does a bit more.

First, it shows a ‘page-curl white star on blue’ icon to show which pages have been updated since you visited them last. This makes is quick and easy to go to the pages that have been updated rather than checking them yourself. Second, Safari allows you to choose how many sites show up on this page. Chrome does not. Depending on your screen size you can choose between Small, Medium and Large tiles for each site. Small is more, large is less.

Third, but not necessarily specific to the Top Sites page, Safari allows you to search your history in a visual way right from the Top Sites page itself. As you type in your search query a coverflow like window shows you a thumbnail of the Web sites that match it. It makes finding pages you’ve been to in the past much, much easier than in Chrome.

So, for now I’m back to Safari.

My Top Sites in Safari are (from left to right and down) this site, my WordPress admin, Twitter (although I rarely use this because I use Echofon so it may be replaced soon), Facebook, Gmail, Instapaper, Tumblr, 37Signals Launchpad, Flickr, Viddler’s Recently Uploaded page, GitHub and Google Reader.

iPhone was, as Scott Forstall recently put it, a gold rush for developers. Simple, relatively inexpensive applications for iPhone that hit the top paid, popular or featured lists on the App Store have made some serious dough for their developers. This caused a lot of developers to focus on iPhone either exclusively or in addition to their offerings for either the Mac or PC. They’ve spent a considerable amount of time focused on iPhone app development.

iPad is creating a similar environment. iPhone applications are being ported over to iPad and new applications are being developed and released as quickly as possible – and exclusively for iPad. A lot of time and effort is going into building these applications and I’m sure it will mean a lot of money in the pockets of developers.

You can’t blame the developers for going where the money is but I fear for the future of Mac software and I’m even beginning to fear for iPhone’s. I fear that one day all of the great work, the great applications, the incredible design will have migrated exclusively to iPad. That may not happen for some time and people are still making some serious money on making both Mac and iPhone applications – but the tide is definitely on its way out to the iPad sea.

I sometimes sit and wonder what sort of applications could have been made for the Macintosh if, say, Apple had opened up an App Store that supported iPhone, iPad, and Mac? Would the river of money have been split into three smaller tributaries? Would people flock to the Mac the same way they have iPhone and now iPad? Arguably the main reasons people buy iPhones and iPads is the ease of finding/installing software and content. Imagine if things were that easy on the Mac. And imagine if developers were excited to build applications for the Mac again!

Apple isn’t out of position yet to make this happen. With a single move, adding Mac software to the App Store, they could start a gold rush for Macintosh developers the way they have for iPhone and iPad developers. Unlike iPhone and iPad, though, it should be just another way to download applications – not the only way to do so. This way both developers and consumers could decide how to get applications themselves and not be forced one way or the other. I think, ultimately, developers would decide to distribute their applications through the App Store because that is how users would choose to get their applications but at least they’d have the choice. Wouldn’t that be great?

But this may never happen and that is why I fear for the future of Mac software.

Many of the third-party iPad applications I’ve seen so far have me wishing that I wasn’t so sure that I’m not getting one. Game Table for iPad is no exception. It includes Checkers, Chess and a deck of cards (and some chips) for only $.99.

I love this bit.

“Game Table is not a video game. There is no “logic” built into these games. Game Table simply provides brilliantly designed game tables and game pieces along with an extremely intuitive and fun way for you and your friends to interactive with them. It’s so intuitive, you might even forget you’re not playing on a real table.”

/via Cameron Moll.

Marco Arment has now confirmed and previewed Instapaper for the iPad. In the post he says “an iPad without native Instapaper Pro is not a device I want to own.” I agree. Instapaper on the iPad is like the drugs+.

However, having purchased a new Macbook Pro just a little over 8 months ago I will not be getting an iPad for some time. I see an iPad, as I’m sure many do, as a secondary device to a main desktop computer. Not as a secondary device to a laptop. It just doesn’t seem practical. Of course, I could buy an iPad for no other reason than because I want one but that’d be frivolous and I’m generally not a frivolous person. At least I try not to be. I presume that at some point in the future when I need to replace my Macbook Pro (my last Macbook lasted over 3 years) I will purchase both a new desktop computer (some flavor of iMac perhaps?) and an iPad. I’ll let you know in a few years.

Tweetie for Mac still has a few standout features that draw me to using it – but any software that runs on a public social service that isn’t updated in months tends to fall behind rather quickly. Echofon keeps up.

A feature that I’d really love to see (and if there is a way to do this that I do not know about please put it in the comments) is to open an application in the background. For example, I might be writing a post in my WordPress admin in Chromium and realize that I have to open Skype for my morning meeting. So, being the avid Spotlight user that I am, I key in CMD+Space, type in Skype, hit Enter. Never in the world of computing has it been easier to open an application. As the focus falls back from Spotlight to Chromium I can resume typing my post. Which is great. But then Skype rears its rather ugly head and takes focus from Chromium even though I’m typing in it.

This has been the way computer operating systems have always worked (as far back as I can remember). But why not give me some way to open applications in the background? We know that there will always be some slight delay between me asking the application to launch and its interface being available so why not plan for that?

Speaking of cool remote controls – the L5 Remote is a combination iPhone/iPod touch application + accessory to turn said iPhone or iPod touch into a remote control for your television, DVR, Blu-ray player, and just about anything else accepting IR input.

Yes, please. But I’ll need a discount on two (one for my iPhone and one for the wife’s).

The utility of an iPhone is something that is being realized over time. It is a simple, extensible touchscreen device that can and will replace many, many other devices. Think of the devices it has already replaced (for those of us that own one). For me the iPhone has already replaced a pocket-sized digital camera for quick photos, an iPod, a phone, a “netbook” like device for Internet access (anything smaller than a laptop), a notebook, a pocket dictionary (not a device I suppose), a photo album, an alarm clock, a calendar, a to do list of some sort, a wireless remote control for my surround sound when playing music through iTunes, a pocket-sized gaming device (like a Nintendo DS or the like), and much more.

For those that have the iPhone 3GS it replaces, by default, several other devices such as a small pocket-sized video camera, a GPS device, and perhaps even a turn-by-turn directions device for the car.

I think that we’re just beginning to see the iPhone being extended through accessories that will help it replace even more of our devices. Will the next version of the iPhone do that even better? Will Apple announce a new device that will replace even more devices in our home? Time will tell.

/via John Gruber.

Update May 20, 2011: It turns out that Tomlinson’s website is down. So, here is a brief synopsis of what you can do to add this functionality to your Mac.

• Open Terminal
• In terminal, enter: open .profile
• Add the following lines of code
  # TextMate
  # set path and simple shell function
  export TEXTMATE_PATH=/Applications/TextMate.app/Contents/Resources/mate
  mate () {
  $TEXTMATE_PATH $1 $2 $3 $4 $5 $6
  }
  # svn for TextMate (default editor, end-of-line types)
  export EDITOR="$TEXTMATE_PATH -w"
  export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8

  # Coda
# set path
export CODA_PATH=/Applications/Coda.app
# function roughly like 'mate .' by expanding '.' to '*.htm*'
coda () {
if [[ "." == $1 ]]
then
open -a $CODA_PATH *.htm*
else
open -a $CODA_PATH $1 $2 $3
fi
}

• Save .profile
• Quit Terminal
• Restart Terminal

There is also a slightly more robust script written for Coda by Aditya Bhargava that handles a few more tidbits and it is available on GitHub.

To help out, here is a link to their new game for the iPhone – Pickin’ Time.

In other words; why buy applications that I will not end up using long term?

However, I use Twitter profusely. I admit it. I mean, 13,000+ tweets posted since November 2006? That’s an addict right there folks. Aside from the iPod, Mail, and Messaging applications my most used apps are Twitter-related. Which is why I didn’t have any second thoughts about buying a Twitter application. So I bought Tweetie 2 for iPhone. Why?

It fit my criteria for buying applications for my iPhone, which are:

• The application must have a life expectancy of longer than a few weeks.
• The cost of the app must be based on the value of the app to me.
• The reviews for the application must be fairly to exceedingly positive.

The first rule is simply a self-imposed control mechanism. If I didn’t have that rule I’d buy every application I could and end up with tons of applications that I’d never use which I paid for. The second rule means that I don’t spend too much money on applications that are not important to me. Not that recreation isn’t important to me but I know that I don’t play many games on my iPhone so the second rule could also be; Know thyself. Or, Do not buy awesome games for $20 if you are never going to play them but you can buy $1 games to play once and a while. Since, I’m not in the business of reviewing iPhone applications the third rule is set so that I don’t dive into an application that hasn’t been proven to be valuable. I allow the world around me to figure out an application’s value for me. This saves me time, money, and the chance of my expectations being trampled on.

Tweetie 2 for iPhone will more than likely be on my iPhone for the foreseeable future, is priced just right, and has exceedingly good reviews. That is why I bought it and I’m really, really glad I did.

As it stands Safari is far and away the best browser available on the Macintosh. Firefox, which is a really solid browser and is much loved by many developers, just isn’t “Mac enough” for us real, devout Mac users. There are so many things missing when an application is not built as a native Macintosh application. Simple things, really. Being able to look up things from the built-in Mac OS X dictionary is one thing. Native spell check. Speed! These are simple things, since Firefox handles some of these things on its own, but once you’ve grown accustomed how real, native Mac applications feel – you want that from all applications on your Mac. Opera and Camino, both very respectable browsers, just are not as lean and mean as Safari is. The are other browsers, to be sure, but none that are backed by corporations with enough resources, or an active enough development community, to really push for the top-spot on the Mac.

Which is why it’d be great for a really, really good browser to emerge on the Macintosh to rival Safari. Both Safari and the Webkit teams are on a tear lately. They have made tremendous strides towards making Safari better and Webkit (along with Squirelfish which is now called Nitro) much, much faster. They’ve improved Webkit’s page rendering (or, how it displays the page based on open standards) to such a degree that it is the envy of all other engines. But, they could do better.

For example, Chrome renders pages faster than Safari. I don’t need a fancy graph or test to show me this – I’ve loaded pages on my Macbook Pro using Chrome and the speed at which the page becomes usable is hands-down much, much faster in Chrome than in Safari (and Safari is fast).

For example, Firefox has add-ons which enhance the features of the core browser. There are add-ons for everything like plugging into your favorite Web sites, aggregating content, security and privacy enhancements, music, calendaring, etc. etc. etc. All optional, based on your needs/wants. Chrome will also support extensions, which are similar to add-ons, that will use open standards (this excites me very, very much).

Competition. That is what it comes down to. Not just competition based on marketing or market share or even mindshare – but an all-out race to be the best. The unequivocal best even if you’re not the biggest. If Google Chrome for Mac is released and is only marginally better than the developer preview releases I’ve been using – the people that are responsible for making Safari will need to trot a little quicker to keep up with where Google is going.

Hooray for us.

Side note: Why I can’t use Google Chrome full time, yet

I’d be tempted to use the developer preview releases of Google Chrome for Mac full time but there are a few key things that are ultimately missing from the application that are vital to my daily browsing needs. Here they are, in case you’re wondering:

• Adobe Flash support is simply not yet available. I’m not sure what makes Google Chrome for Mac any different than any other browser but I’m hoping this is addressed soon.
• Google Gears support. Both Google Reader and WordPress, two applications that I use quite often, support Gears and make the experience of using them much nicer. Kind of ironic that Google Chrome for Mac still doesn’t have Google Gears support.
• Import from Safari. I could probably hack my way into bringing all of my bookmarks and preferences from Safari into Google Chrome – but I hope that an upcoming release has this built-in.

That’s really about it. If I had these things I could probably make the jump to do some real testing of Google Chrome for Mac. For now, I’ll stick with the best browser available for the Mac, Safari.

Today Apple released the third version of their iPhone OS aptly named iPhone OS 3.0. This release boasts several improvements and new features – however, not all of them are available on the first-generation iPhone.

But, lets stay positive. So, what do you get if you upgrade your first-generation iPhone to the latest version of the OS? Here’s a list.

What you will actually get with iPhone OS 3.0 on the original iPhone

• Spotlight search: In a search screen to the left of your first home screen there is now a new search box that searches your entire iPhone including music, contacts, email, etc. It works great. Just like the update to Spotlight in Leopard changed the way I used my computer I believe the addition of Spotlight on my iPhone will change the way I find, use, and open things on my iPhone.
• Cut, Copy and Paste: Something that has been missing from the iPhone since the very first day but now seems so at home and well done. Copying text, photos, URLs, addresses, just about anything – from any app, and pasting into any application. Everyone knew Apple could pull this off better than anyone else and they have.
• A new Messages app: The SMS application has been replaced with the new Message application that handles MMS messages. This will allow the sending of audio, photo, and text messages. I say will because for those of us in the US and using AT&T, MMS isn’t yet supported. There are several other additions to this application, however, with much it a much more well rounded application overall. Two quick examples are the new way it sends messages without stopping you from moving onto something else and the ability to delete individual messages rather than just clearing the entire conversation.
• Voice memos: An application that I’m sure will come in handy (though you could have purchased or downloaded a number of applications that have been available through the App Store that do something similar) where you can quickly record some audio and email it (and soon MMS it) to anyone. I’d be willing to bet the utility of this application will come with time.
• Note syncing: Although notes now sync through iTunes they are unfortunately synced with Mail.app only (I’d rather them be in a directory in my Documents directory). I don’t use Mail.app so I am not sure how this will help me right now. I’ve been waiting for this, again, since iPhone OS 1.0 and am now disappointed in its implementation.
• Shake to shuffle: Open iTunes, play a song, shake your phone, and iTunes will randomly choose another song from your iPhone to play. Simple, fun.
• iTunes Store and App Store updates: You can now buy and rent movies and TV shows directly from your iPhone. The App Store application has a few updates as well including the ability to redeem applications (or credit from gift cards) (perhaps for beta testing purposes for applications). It also has a much improved interface for showing the screenshots from an application.
• The smaller updates: Several smaller updates like speed improvements, bug fixes, a few aesthetic things (like icons), and improvements like showing the phone number type (mobile or home) and location (city, state) in the Recents menu on the Phone application are among them. These are the types of updates that go mostly unnoticed by news outlets but those of us that use our iPhones for hours a day will thoroughly enjoy.

I think I covered most everything. iPhone OS 3.0 is a very, very big release for the iPhone OS and so there are a vast number of improvements that I simply could not list here.

What you do not get with iPhone OS 3.0 on the original iPhone

There are several things that you do not get with the update. I won’t list the things you don’t get due to not having the new lens, or magnometer such as focusing, and the compass related features, etc.

• Internet Tethering: Even though AT&T hasn’t enabled tethering via the iPhone yet, same as with MMS, this will never be available for the first generation iPhone. From what I’ve read it seems a limitation based on the EDGE antenna built into the iPhone.
• Voice Controls: Presumably due to resource limitations on the iPhone, Voice Controls are not available on the first-generation iPhone. The iPhone 3G, which shares nearly the same specs as the original iPhone, also does not support this feature. Which I find sort of odd. The Google Mobile App uses similar technology of voice recognition (and it even sends the data to the Web for interpretation) and it works just fine on my iPhone. I see two reasons for this being excluded: 1. Apple wants something even more to juice up the iPhone 3G S’s offering. Which this certainly does. 2. The Voice Controls applications does all of the interpretation on the iPhone itself instead of sending it to the service like Google’s application does and so it really is a restriction of the hardware in the iPhone and iPhone 3G.
• Video recording and editing: Although the new video recording capabilities are not solely based on the new lens in the iPhone 3G S the ability to record, playback, and edit the video are probably the result of the new hardware (ie. CPU, and RAM) in it.
• MMS: Thanks, or I should say no thanks, to Jacob Burke for letting me know that MMS will not be available on the original iPhone. This is, by far, the most disappointing thing that will not be available. Now I’m bummed.

That about wraps it up. The iPhone OS 3.0 update is extremely well done and a much appreciated update from Apple for all iPhone and iPod touch owners. I’m very much looking forward to updating my iPhone to the iPhone 3G S in the future and enjoying the things I’m missing now.

If you have an iPhone 3G and are wondering what you’ll get from this update, Apple has create a page just for you (hat tip: Mike Stickel).

If I missed something, and I’m sure I did, please be sure to make me aware of it via the comments and I’ll update the post promptly.

Photo credit: Erik Kastner

Mike Rundle, whom I had the extreme pleasure of working with at 9rules, is – and I have absolutely no reservations about saying this out loud – one of the very best designers I will ever work with. He also doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty with regards to programming. And he’s done just that with Beak – his foray into developing software for the Macintosh (which is, I think, exactly what he should be doing).

Beak is a simple, yet relatively full-featured Twitter application for the Macintosh that has Mike’s visual tastes dripping all over it. The icons in the application, as an example, could be picked out as Mike’s work from a hundred yards.

One of the differentiators that Beak has going for it, over any of the other Twitter applications I’ve used for the Mac, is the “Stats” tab. Mike chose to use the URL shortener Idek.net, which has a nice, clean, simple API, that allows him to show the number of click thrus on a URL that you’ve shortened from within Beak itself. I think this is both genius and handy. While Tweetie supports all of the URL shortening services I could ever want (and photo posting services too), it doesn’t support showing the statistics of those clicks nor does it even connect me to my account on said URL shorteners (neither does Beak, but at least I can easily check the stats tab).

There are several other nits that Mike has, no doubt pain stakingly [sic], poured over, refined, and included in the first version of this application. Profile pop-up boxes, in-line replies and retweets, and support for multiple accounts all seem like things that someone who was taking the easy way would have left out.

This is still “beta” software people. But I’m very much looking forward to what Mike ends up with before hitting 1.0 and even more looking forward to seeing what he does for his next trick in the world of Mac applications.

Reading his review, albeit late and after an update has already been released for it, has inspired me to dive into the application a little more fully. I’ve found even more than I thought was there before. Tweetie is a fantastic Twitter application for the Mac.

Tweetie for Mac, which I’ve been using all morning, allows for multiple accounts, posting from the browser, auto URL shortening, and much more. Although it feels like 1.0 it is certainly a well polished 1.0. Looking forward to watching this application mature.

I’m spoiled by a rich-editor in WordPress, that saves drafts automatically and even has multiple revisions, and so I’m sticking with WordPress for now. But if I was going to use an application to write with – it’d be MarsEdit.

Oh, and the latest version supports Tumblr now. Which is excellent.