After viewing videos and reading reviews I think Liquipel is a great idea that is just not quite there yet. I think it would be great for protecting your phone in the rain or from spills but a toilet or pool, no way! It’s clear that results will vary in every situation and with this being said I just could not feel confident enough to recommend or use Liquipel right now.

Some protection is better than no protection, I always say. However, one shouldn’t expect to go swimming with one’s iPhone either.

/via fellow-Viddler Thomas Kover (TKO).

The number one complaint that I hear from friends, family and random strangers complaining on the train is that their personal technology devices (mp3 player, phone, watch, etc.) are not waterproof. The number one enemy to their electric devices is water. Be it the humidity in the air, the sweat from a successful exercise session, or devices that just seem to be drawn to pools of standing water, there’s a huge disconnect between the number one feature people want, and the ever increasing feature list of things that don’t matter as much.

I’ve often thought that every single device which is meant to be used daily should also be waterproof. There is a huge benefit to the user even if that device never, ever gets completely submerged in water. I may have to look into Liquipel further.

Be sure to watch the video demonstration at the tail end of Danny’s blog post.

The biggest two changes are the six awesome new reading fonts and the distraction-free, full-screen reading interface.

I just updated Instapaper for my iPad and iPhone. For free. Marco puts a lot of thought and care into this application and it only costs a few dollars. If you’d like to mark things to read later I suggest grabbing Instapaper.

Side note: I’m hoping to integrate the brand-new-not-even-finished-yet Nilai with Instapaper in a future update. I do not foresee Nilai supporting any other read later services.

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.

/via Andy “I track Oscar winning torrents” Baio.

Credit: Screenshot by Rafe Needleman/CNET.

/via CNet.

Tap and hold on an Avatar to quickly Follow, Direct Message, Mute, Add to a List or Report for Spam. #TweetbotTip

— Tweetbot for iPhone (@tweetbot) December 17, 2011

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.

Instapaper ships with a tilt-scrolling feature that, rather than scrolling with your finger on the glass, lets you scroll the article you’re reading by titling the iPad.

I wouldn’t mind seeing other apps with features like these.

One of the distinct features in the Path app is the fly-out menu that allows you to share photos, comments, location, etc. Two developers took it upon themselves to build out that menu both in CSS3 and using CoreAnimation. Both open sourced their work and gave credit.

• Path menu in pure CSS 3 by Victor Coulon.
• Path menu using CoreAnimation by ??? (Levy)

/via Mike Rundle on Twitter.

Here is a good look at their application from Geoff Teehan. Or, you can stop by their site and grab a copy for yourself.

/tip Mike Rundle on Twitter for Teehan’s review.

/tip Kyle Slattery.

A little over a year ago I wrote about how it was getting very difficult to choose which camera to use in a given situation. The iPhone 4′s camera was good enough for almost every circumstance I had run into and so the convenience and speed of using the iPhone 4 over a DSLR made for a tough choice.

With the iPhone 4S that decision just got even harder. The iPhone 4S now has an 8MP f/2.4 camera that is also capable of shooting 1080p HD video (the iPhone 4 records in 720p). For any photographer that still pulled out their DSLR over the iPhone 4 they may find it a little easier to use the iPhone 4S. That is why I think the curve to popularity will be a very steep, up-and-to-the-right graph. More serious photographers will use the iPhone 4S then did the iPhone 4.

Time will tell if I’m right. I’d guess, 12 months.

To top it off Apple’s stock price dipped during the event and the tech press has since been rather harsh to Apple for “not releasing an iPhone 5″. The iPhone 4S is the iPhone 5 people. It is as big an update to a piece of hardware as anyone could want. Two-times faster CPU, 7x graphics, an amazing update to the camera, and an antenna that works around the world? What else, besides pure aesthetics, would have been updated on an iPhone 5? Only the name.

The insatiable tech press isn’t the best place to get a balanced view of how great these products, and products from Amazon, Google, Viddler, Twitter, BuzzCar etc. etc., really are. Many of these writers hear about the products too early and by the time they are actually given a launch date they are already bored with the news. Unfortunately the tech press is the only outlet educating both the got-to-have-it enthusiast and our mom’s. Not good.

I sometimes find myself guilty of this and I sometimes have to snap myself out of it. When I want to I either read this or watch this.

• The camera lens will be on the opposite side of the Apple logo. Wrong. According to any photos I’ve seen of the iPhone 4S the camera is in the exact same location as before. (Those of you with iPhone 4 cases that you like are probably very happy about this.)
• The antenna will no longer be built into the case. Wrong. Again, this isn’t the iPhone 5 so the antenna remains relatively unchanged. However, they have somehow managed to make the antenna work for the entire planet inside one phone as well as ad some dynamic switching between technologies. So, at least it is a better antenna?
• The phone will be lighter and have no glass back. Wrong. Wrong.
• The speaker phone will be better. Maybe? Although there was no mention of this in today’s presentation the iPhone 4S now allows for a user-configurable maximum volume limit.
• The build of the home button will be better. Assuming wrong. Apple could have made slight adjustments on the underpinnings of the iPhone 4S’ home button but it may take an iFixit type breakdown to know for sure.
• Every iPhone 5 will support most of the world’s carriers. Right!
• The camera will be better quality both in megapixels and focal length. Right! 8MP and f/2.4. The photos look amazing too.
• Again, the mic will be better, but I think it will be to handle voice commands. Sort of right? Apple is unleashing Siri on all of us – a personal assistant that does whatever you ask it to via voice commands. But whether or not the mic is actually better may take more time to figure out.

So, no iPhone 5 but I think it is very fair to say that the iPhone 4S is an incredible update to an already amazing “phone”.

• The camera lens will be on the opposite side of the Apple logo. I guess this because the iPhone 5 and iOS 5 will allow someone to use the volume buttons as the shutter-button. Using my iPhone 4 and pretending to take photos using the volume up button as the shutter-button I find having the lens on the bottom side of the iPhone to be very inconvenient.
• The antenna will no longer be built into the case. Although the iPhone 4′s issue of having the antenna be part of the casing (it is much of the outer metallic ring) ended up being a non-issue I don’t think they’ll want to deal with these issues again. They’ll more than likely come up with an even better solution.
• The phone will be lighter and have no glass back. When you hold an iPhone 4 you feel like you’re holding something that was incredibly well made. The glass front and back and the overall weight of the iPhone 4 make it feel that way. Plastic weighs less but feels like plastic. Metal was a good choice, I thought, for the iPhone 1. So I don’t know what the backing will be but I feel as though the iPhone 5 will be lighter and no longer have a glass back.
• The speaker phone will be better. Maybe this is the part where I begin to dream or something but the speaker phone feature has never been good on an iPhone. Many times it is not loud enough and more often than not the people on the other end can’t hear you either. So both the speaker and mic need to be better.
• The build of the home button will be better. I don’t know but I’m sure there are rumors that Apple will ditch the home button on the iPhone 5. If there are, I’d doubt them. Having a single home button is just about perfect for everything you need to do with an iPhone. I’d like to see more options with it (double-clicks, triple-clicks, etc.) but overall it works just fine. The problem with the iPhone 4 that I’d guess they’ll fix with iPhone 5 is that the home button hasn’t held up too well. After a year and a few months of usage it has taken a lot of wear in its feel. I often have issue with the double-click feature. I have to very deliberately push (read: almost mash) the button. Not good.
• Every iPhone 5 will support most of the world’s carriers. Making a different iPhone for each carrier’s network technology seems like something Apple should be very unhappy with doing. In order to ensure the iPhone’s growth over the last 4 years they’ve had to do this but the iPhone 5 is a great opportunity to unify all of the hardware and allow people to use these devices out-of-the-box all over the world.
• The camera will be better quality both in megapixels and focal length. The iPhone (and many other phones) have quickly replaced point-and-shoot cameras. In fact, I’d wager that the only people really using point-and-shoot cameras are people that do not have a decent phone camera. The iPhone 4′s camera is good enough for me to use rather than a point-and-shoot but it could be a lot better. There is a lot of room for improvement with the iPhone’s current camera and I think the iPhone 5 will bring a few of those updates.
• Again, the mic will be better, but I think it will be to handle voice commands. Apple hasn’t done much to update how the iPhone takes voice commands. I use this to make phone calls, sometimes, while driving. “Call Eliza Mobile” I’ll tell my iPhone and it works just great. Although I rarely use the iTunes voice commands they are there. But beyond that the iPhone is falling behind Android quickly. I know Apple bought a company that specializes in this sort of thing at least a year ago now so I can’t imagine that sometime in the near future the iPhone will be able to do things like speech-to-type and complex voice commands for things we do with our phones that we’d like to be hands free.

I don’t know how these align with the rumors but as an iPhone user since day one I can certainly see Apple addressing some of these issues with the iPhone 5.

Although I wish the app supported Markdown format (rather than just HTML) I’ll take it.

Just in time for our trip to Ireland too.

Update: A small, yet very welcomed update, is that the Posts tab is now the default tab rather than the Comments tab. This makes things so much quicker. Again, a very, very nice update to WordPress for iOS.

Google Wallet is the first real step in the right direction. Square’s CardCase application is very nice but it is very, very limited and is contingent upon the store, cab, etc. knowing about Square and being compatible. Google Wallet is built on top of the already existing credit card, pay pass, infrastructure. Wherever MasterCard’s pay pass works Google Wallet will work. I’d imagine more card companies will follow suit soon and Google Wallet will improve.

This won’t make me jump the fence to Droid but I can only imagine it will be a matter of a year or two until Apple has a similar solution (perhaps even made possible via a Google Wallet iOS app) with the iPhone.

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.

Thanks to the Macworld team for reaching out and including my post in the article.

• Photo and video uploads now work on iPad 2
• Made the post status (such as “Draft”) more clear in the posts list

I use my iPad to write posts and, now that I have iPad 2, I hope to do it a lot more often while on the go. WordPress for iOS has been making very steady progress lately and this update is a very timely one.

Why are these updates key for me? Because iPad 2 would instantly crash when trying to add a photo to a blog post. I was able to work around it by using iPhone but it was pretty frustrating. Also, I write posts, save them as drafts, and then schedule them for publishing all from my iPad. This allows me to pick the time that a post gets published regardless of when I feel impelled to write it and also gives me time to edit them (which I did poorly on yesterday’s post). Being able to see which posts are in draft right in the posts list is a very welcomed update.

Thanks WordPress for iOS team.

/via Dan Rubin on Twitter.

Erica Sudan has made a nice little utility called AirPlayer (look for the download link in the list at the bottom of the page) that makes it dead simple to use your Mac as an AirPlay destination device. Sort of like turning your Mac into a TV with an AppleTV attached.

I just used the YouTube application on my iPad and played the video back on my Mac using this utility and it works just fine. Simple too.

/via Lifehacker.

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.

Where we all assumed it meant that Apple was refocusing everyone’s attention on the Mac from the iPhone/iPod/iPad, Dediu suggests something else. Jobs himself stated during the event that some of the things they’ve learned from iPhone, iPad and iOS were being applied to the Macintosh in both hardware – the new Macbook Air – and to OS X Lion. So these lessons-learned were being brought Back to the Mac.

Clever. Genius. Awesome. (via John Gruber)

Some guy named Kirk proposed to me. Sorry Kirk, I’m taken. But I am glad you found the information useful.

The red light that is referred to in the polls/articles, presumably telling you that you have a missed call or text message, is a pretty compelling feature. Gruber calls it nutty. However, my iPhone will chime and vibrate a few times after a call is missed but – other than that – I would have no idea someone called unless I turned the screen on myself. Over the last 3+ years I have missed more phone calls and text messages than I’d care to count due to being in the shower, out for a jog or just away from my phone.

The “always” on keypad is something I’m beginning to miss. “Hey, jot down my phone number” someone will demand. With a Blackberry you can immediately begin keying in the number. With an iPhone I’m forced to unlock my phone, go to the phone application, click on the keyboard pane – and then I’m able to enter the phone number. But, from here I can only make the phone call immediately – not save the phone number for later. If I wanted to do that I’d have to add a contact. So I’d move to the contacts pane and begin entering the person’s information into a new contact card. Meanwhile, the Blackberry owner would have moved on with his/her day.

Something that is more related to the iPhone 4 than my previous first-gen iPhone is the silent or vibrate setting. I can barely feel the iPhone 4 vibrate when it is in my pants’ pocket. While the iPhone 4′s ringtone is much louder than my previous first-gen iPhone – in the pocket it is barely noticeable. Add to that the sound of the road and the car stereo and you’ve got the makings for another few missed calls and text messages. From experience with other’s Blackberrys – the vibrate mode on those things are more like a jack hammer. Seriously I think people make milkshakes with these things. That’d be nice.

My reasons are few and not enough to sway my iPhone love but that doesn’t mean a boy can’t dream.

Hello dear readers of my personal Web site (all 3 or 4 of you lovely, lovely people)! I have a problem. My voicemail greeting – you know, the thing you hear when you call my phone and I don’t pick up – needs to be updated. I’ve had the same greeting for over three years. Here is what it says today:

“Hey, you’ve reached Colin’s iPhone please leave a message.”

I had a few reasons for setting my greeting to the above three years ago. First, I had a brand new first-generation iPhone (that lasted all three years) and I thought it’d be cool to say iPhone in the greeting. Second, I’m not fond of long greetings and so I tried to keep it short. I also worked my name in there.

But now I want something different. Something fresh. Something that is still short and to the point but perhaps slightly more memorable. Oh, and I don’t think it should include the word iPhone anymore.

Suggestions? Sound off in the comments. If I use your idea I’ll tweet it out and link you up in this post (if you care about that sorta thing).

In line for iPhones

Three years ago at the King of Prussia Mall in Pennsylvania Eliza and I were nearly at the front of what became a very, very long line at the Apple Retail Store ready to buy two first generation iPhones. For six years prior to that day Eliza and I hadn’t owned mobile phones. We were rebels during the early mobile phone explosion, partially to save money, partially to save us from being ‘available anytime’. We decided to come out of hiding for the iPhone because the iPhone wasn’t going to be just a phone – as Steve Jobs pointed out in his Keynote that year -  it was going to be a phone, an iPod and an Internet device. And that is exactly what it proved to be.

Eliza and I have used our first-generation iPhones every day since. We use them for audio (music, podcasts, books), Twitter and Facebook, playing games, accessing the Web on the go, making phone calls, taking photos, maps and directions, weather, keeping track of our time and weight. (I tried my best to put those in order.)

Having any electronic device for three years used to be remarkable but remember I had my Macbook for three years before upgrading it too. I think I’ve set a new benchmark for device longevity in the Devroe home. If a device performs well for at least three years I’ll declare it a success. In that vane the iPhone has been a smashing success for us.

We didn’t upgrade to the 3G or the 3GS for a number of reasons but ultimately it came down to need. We didn’t need to upgrade to the 3G or 3GS. Most of the software that is available for those two phones are also available for us first-generation iPhone owners. No, we don’t have GPS or the magnometer or video – but we haven’t actually needed those things. The first-generation iPhone’s location capabilities were good enough for most purposes and we’ve got a Flip Ultra HD for video.

Today iOS 4 for iPhone will be released and it will not run on first generation iPhones. This is the first update to the iPhone OS that will alienate any of their previous versions of iPhone. The next-generation iPhone, iPhone 4, also gave a vast number of reasons to upgrade this time around. HD video, upgraded camera, multi-tasking, an all new slimmer design, and a forward facing camera, (the list goes on).

As you see from the above and following images, my iPhone has taken some wear (it is the one on the left). Recently I dropped my iPhone into a toilet bowl full of fresh pee (yes, you read that right) and because of that it has now been turning on and off randomly. Which kills the battery in about three hours. Until then though it has worked flawlessly for most of three years.

Eliza’s phone, on the other hand, looks absolutely pristine. Neither of us really ever had a case for our iPhones though she does have an invisishield cover on her screen. So, those scratches you see on her iPhone aren’t really scratches in the glass. Ironically Eliza’s iPhone doesn’t work as as well as mine. Her home button works when it wants to and the headphone jack has some issues. These have been minor gripes by Eliza until recently.

So, even if iOS 4 and iPhone 4 weren’t so compelling – we’d probably be upgrading anyway. Since we’re both eligible to renew our AT&T contracts it simply seems like the very best time to upgrade to the next iPhone. We’d be tickled if they both lasted for three years the way the first-generation iPhone has.

Reportedly it has a ridiculously fine, nearly as good as print, screen. Reportedly it has a front-facing camera that could be used for all sorts of new applications. Reportedly the two-button volume controls, as opposed to the current single-button volume controls, could be used to control the reported flash bulb that is on the back-side-camera. Reportedly the entire thing is made of a combination of glass, ceramics, and aluminum. Reportedly the new iPhone will have a larger battery than it does now. Reportedly the sleek design of the iPhone is going back to the first-generation “flat” casing rather than the rounded back-side. Reportedly the second microphone at the to near the headphone jack could be used for noise cancellation (read: clearer speakerphone).

All this from a phone that won’t even boot.

Reportedly I want one.

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.

Phil compared writing the same 221-word passage using six different devices (including Pen & Paper) and shared the results on his site. It is very interesting to see the results and how far text-input on devices has come over the last few decades and even the last few years.

/via John Gruber.

Photo credit: Eliza Devroe

The speculation about the upcoming product from Apple, presumably some form of tablet computer, is all over the place. The more I read the more I want. The more I want the more I wish. The more I wish the more I desire a big iPhone.

I’ve thought about it a lot over the last several weeks. I began to ask myself  ’If Apple comes out with a tablet computer what would it have to have for me to buy one and use it?’ I came to the conclusion that I think they could simply hit a homerun by making it a big iPhone.

The iPhone has been a transformative device for me personally. In my link to the L5 remote I wrote this about the utility of the device:

“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.”

By simply making the iPhone bigger what other voids could the device fill? Because of the size of the iPhone I have never used it to read anything of great length like a book and haven’t ever written anything of great length like a blog post or company memo. However, if the iPhone were larger, presumably, I’d be able to do those things.

But, like the Kindle, that wouldn’t be enough to get me to open my wallet. The way I figure it,  it’d have to let me access the Internet everywhere. This is the moment we’ve all been really waiting for isn’t it? It is what everyone enjoys so much about tethering laptop computers to their Internet connected phones. It will change everything. Having a device that lets you access the Internet from virtually anywhere in the world is the transformative device.

Having the Internet everywhere, even on my small screened iPhone, has changed the way that I live. I no longer print directions, as an example. Heck, I no longer even worry about things like directions. Things like where to eat, or being able to find information about my flight before I get to the airport. I just pack and go. I can do banking on the go, check email, send a photo to my wife before I purchase something, and communicate with people on just about every service imaginable.

My Macbook Pro is much more usable than my iPhone on a variety of levels yet I don’t take it with me everywhere I go. It is big, doesn’t come with a built-in Internet connection, and is overkill for many of the tasks I need on the go. The speed at which I’m able to accomplish things is much quicker on my laptop than my iPhone for a few reasons – technical specs, screen size, keyboard size, and Internet connection speed. If the tablet could make up ground on any of those fronts I would bring a tablet with me everywhere that I went simply for the ability to access the Internet in a much better fashion than my iPhone.

So that is what I want in a tablet. A big iPhone for reading, writing, and better Internet access. If it does this well than everything else that it will no doubt do will be icing on my cake.

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.

As reported by Danilo Campos on Twitter “Any ziplock bag you happen to find in your kitchen will waterproof your phone while allowing the screen to respond.” So I gave it a whirl and it works!

Neven Mrgan, who I heard this through, brought up a few great uses for this. He said “This means I can use my iPhone when I walk in the rain. I can read recipes off it in an oily, wet kitchen. I can follow crafting tutorials, paint all over my fingers.”

Back when I had dead spots on my iPhone’s touchscreen I was told by the Apple Genius at the store said that any moisture making it underneath the touchscreen could have been the cause. After thinking of the ways I could have gotten moisture into the iPhone I realized it could have been sweat when answering the phone while working out and playing basketball. From now on I’ll be putting my iPhone in a baggy when making sweaty phone calls.

The possibilities are now indeed endless.

/via John Gruber.

Pie Guy is a fun game for your iPhone that is free, is installed via the Web (it is a fancy Web page), works offline, and is actually a lot of fun (works sorta like Pac-Man).

Neven Mrgan, the developer of Pie Guy, built the game – not only so people can enjoy the game – but to help show what is possible via HTML, JavaScript, and CSS for building games or applications on the iPhone using the Web browser rather than native cocoa technologies.

“If you find Pie Guy a fun game to play, well that’s grand.

But, I hope Pie Guy will also be an opportunity for the code-savvy among you to learn a trick or two about making serious web apps for the iPhone. Just grab my source code and tweak it. I’m not talking about just a fancied-up webpage here; this is a fullscreen game, with fast gameplay and responsive touch controls. I can’t wait to see what a better programmer does with this stuff (it’s not hard to program better than me!)”

A very notable thing to do and I hope a ton of talented developers take him up on it. I’d love to see stuff like jQuery for iPhone games/apps (which I’m sure exists in some form or another).

Also of note: As Neven pointed out in his announcement post – don’t try this on your first generation iPhones. This game only performs well on an iPhone 3GS.

Last weekend I rolled out an updated theme for this site when your browsing it with an iPhone. The main reason for this is my mobile photos. When I post a mobile photo my site automatically Twitter’s a link to it, like this, and a lot of people flood in to view the photos and some of them are on iPhones. I wanted this site to load a lot faster than it did before for these mobile photo pages and this definitely solves that problem.

However, another reason to do this theme came up last weekend. Someone asked me about fishing, particularly this fairly large bass that I caught this summer, and I had trouble, on my own iPhone, on my own site, to find that photo. Turns out I hadn’t posted it yet! It was taking forever to search the site and I got fed up with it. But, now I’ll be able to find stuff quickly given that this new theme works site-wide and has a really great search option right at the top.

Those of you without iPhones may be wondering where your theme for this site is? It is coming. I’ll be working to add all Webkit enabled mobile browsers first (e.g. DROID) this weekend and then will be moving onto other mobile browsers until I squash the majority of them.

Happy mobile browsing.

/via Greg Storey’s Longboard on Airbag Industries.

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.

This morning I’ve installed the bookmarklet from the site, installed the free version of the iPhone application, created a Fluid SSB with this really nice Userstyle by Florian Holstein, and I think I’m all set up to begin using Instapaper.

Stay tuned for how it goes.