Tag Archives: mobile

Ubuntu for phones »

January 3rd, 2013

Canonical is calling this Ubuntu for phones but even in their own presentation they mention it will run on tablet devices. Yesterday I said, on Twitter, that I was happy to see another entrant into this market. Android and iOS are not enough choices (though we’ve been dealing with Mac OS vs. Windows for years and years).

Sadly, Gruber might be right. And The Verge’s video shows this. Ubuntu for phones may be a non-starter.

However, Gruber says that a gesture-based UI can never work. I don’t know if that is true. I’d hate to say that anything is impossible. Gruber and I are old men. Maybe a gesture-based UI wouldn’t work for us (though keyboard shortcuts come as second-nature to anyone my age and under) but will work for a future generation? What if every mobile OS became a gesture-based touch OS? Then humans would be forced to deal with it and get used to it.

So, I don’t know if it is a non-starter because it is a gesture-based UI or if someday that will catch on as the norm, but I do know that if it isn’t responsive or reliable than it won’t take off regardless.

Flickr for iOS 2.01.772 »

December 24th, 2012

One niggle I had with the new Flickr app for iOS was the upload progress indicator was far too subtle (though an interesting take on what could be done to make it unobtrusive). They fixed that with this update.

Now they need to take a queue from Instagram (and many other modern mobile apps) and start uploading the photo immediately, rather than waiting for the user to click “done”, so that it seemingly uploads instantly.

Square teams up with Starbucks »

August 8th, 2012

This is pretty big news. Square (whom I’ve mentioned before) has partnered with Starbucks to bring mobile payments to every Starbucks in the United States.

Square has been leading the way for small businesses and individuals to accept credit card payments without all the hassle. But they’ve been fighting another war as well; payments using geolocation and your face rather than processing a credit card. Making it easier, quicker, and actually safer to pay – all while making it more convenient for both the consumer and business alike.

There was a problem, though. In order for this to be useful it has to be accepted just about everywhere. In order to disrupt the credit card market it will have to be in as many places as credit card machines. This partnership with Starbucks is about to bring Square to millions and millions of people a day. A huge win for Square and for fans of Square.

I really am looking forward to one day being able to pay for just about anything using only my phone. I hope it happens.

Nexus 7 »

June 27th, 2012

The Nexux 7 is a 7″ tablet from Google.

Naturally it runs Android but it runs a version of Android that no one else has yet and, if Android’s track-record stays intact, not many older Android-powered devices will ever run.

I’m skeptical only because I’ve never seen an Android device that I’ve liked. But who knows?

Of course, Marco bought one.

The new Foursquare app

June 8th, 2012

Foursquare just updated their iOS application and I think it is great. MG Siegler sums it up:

A day into using it, I agree that new Foursquare is a significant improvement in a lot of ways. There’s always been a lot more data than check-ins flowing through Foursquare, but much of it was hidden behind layers of UI. Now those layers have been peeled away.

In addition to these features being hidden in previous versions of the application they were also a lot slower. Now, not only are these features (such as finding interesting places nearby) easier to find, they are really, really snappy. Going to a Google map is no longer an exercise but a pleasure.

Fantastic update.

Matt Mullenweg on a much more simple WordPress

May 25th, 2012

First, yes please.

Now, Matt Mullenweg on what tablets should mean to WordPress:

How we democratize publishing on that sort of platform will not and should not work like WordPress’ current dashboard does. It’s not a matter of a responsive stylesheet or incremental UX improvements, it’s re-imagining and radically simplifying what we currently do, thinking outside the box of wp-admin.

I’m sort of disappointed that WordPress used to set the trends and now it simply reacts to them. However, I’m very happy that the most influential person in the WordPress world is now focusing on making it easier to publish from something other than the typical computer set up.

I can publish to my blog using my iPhone or iPad. But it is painful when compared to publishing from my Macbook Pro.

WordPress for iOS 2.7.1. Two key updates.

March 25th, 2011

Even though there is yet to be an announcement on the WordPress for iOS blog, 2.7.1 has been released on the App Store and it comes with two key updates (at least from this blogger’s chair).

  • 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.

The phone that becomes a laptop, Motorola’s Atrix 4G

February 16th, 2011

I remember rumors of Apple building a display that would allow you to dock your iPhone into it to use it as a computer. Then you’d just undock it and be on your way. That product never saw the light (or was never real to begin with). Motorola, however, has gone and built something fairly compelling – the Atrix 4G. I recommend looking at Engadget’s thorough review of the Atrix 4G. The review isn’t great but I think it is a step in an interesting direction.

The iPad apps that I use most

February 14th, 2011

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.

Zepto.js – Mobile JavaScript framework

November 7th, 2010

Doing JavaScript for mobile platforms? Maybe you should check out Zepto.js.

Update: Via Kyle Slattery on Twitter: Sencha.

I haven’t yet had any experience using jQuery mobile (I simply do not do too much JavaScript anymore) but I wanted to make sure that any “competitors” to such a popular framework gets some attention. Does that make sense?

Google vs. Apple – Tech War II?

March 23rd, 2010

Apple vs. Microsoft was a tech war for the ages. The two companies battled each other vigorously. Who won? Some would say Microsoft clearly won based on marketshare while others think they simply sold out and made an inferior product to Apple. However, the clear winner was neither company – it was us, the consumers, because some of the greatest advancements in technology and in particular software were made during that conflict.

Now, it appears, Google and Apple are at war in the mobile space and perhaps even other markets. To be honest I like both companies and their products so I don’t care who loses – I just know that I’ll be winning again because surely some great stuff is going to come out of the conflict.

A new theme for iPhone, more mobile devices to follow

November 21st, 2009

cdevroe.com on an iPhone

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.

The official Flickr iPhone application. Stick with the mobile site.

September 11th, 2009

Flickr recently released an official application for the iPhone (link opens iTunes). I agree with John Gruber, the design of the application is well done in many areas but it doesn’t feel very “Flickr-like” and isn’t as good as Flickr’s mobile site for the iPhone. My biggest gripe, besides the application crashing every few minutes, is that it takes two taps to get to my contacts’ most recent uploads when it should only take one.

Mobile Facebook wishes…

May 26th, 2009

I have a few simple wishes for Facebook’s mobile offerings. I access Facebook on-the-go using my iPhone – though I believe that these wishes will help more than just iPhone users.

iphone.facebook.com

One of the very first web apps for the iPhone and one that Apple has promoted during it’s Keynote addresses – Facebook had a good start in providing a great experience for iPhone users. The only problem is that they haven’t updated it in forever. This interface is lacking so much I’ll simply have one wish. Update it please!

The Facebook iPhone application

Without a doubt the Facebook iPhone application is one of the best designed iPhone applications available. It was also one of the first. Overall it is a fantastic way to access Facebook on the iPhone. However, here are my suggested additions:

  1. Likes and comment notifications should link to the appropriate item. As it stands the app let’s you know that someone commented or liked something you’ve shared – but it doesn’t tell you which thing they like or commented on. Annoying.
  2. Facebook’s “like” feature needs to be accessible from the app.
  3. Support for Pages, Groups, and Events would be nice.

Facebook proper

While I’m jotting down my demands, I might as well put these few things in:

  1. Referencing people on Facebook is simply not possible. I suggest that Facebook add the ability to add your Twitter username to your preferences. That way @cdevroe would actually be linked to my Facebook profile on Facebook and my Twitter profile on Twitter.
  2. An obvious future feature is search. Not just people, event, group, and app search (that is already there), but searching through public status updates, wall posts, links, etc.

You have to wonder if Facebook was a more open platform, like Twitter is, from the beginning would some of this work have been done for them?

(Yes I typed this entire post on my iPhone.)

A little more mobile friendly

April 20th, 2009

Since I’m posting mobile photos and notes to this site rather than a third-party service I figured I’d make those pages a little more condusive to viewing on a mobile platform. Also, to make my life a little easier, I’ve also set up a few little scripts to do things like Twitter a link to my most recent mobile photo or note.

Here is how I’m doing it. I’m posting both mobile photos and notes with the WordPress iPhone application. If I have something to share that I can’t fit into 140-characters, I will be logging those posts into the mobile notes category. Rather than posting my mobile photos to Flickr or Brightkite I’ll be sharing them in the mobile photos category. The WordPress iPhone application automatically resizes the photos to no more than 640-pixels wide. Both the mobile notes and photos will be linked to from Twitter, automatically, using a similar syntax of “Mobile photo: “Title of photo” – LINK”.

The script I’m using for this is the same one I was using for posting photos, links, etc to Pownce. I’ve since updated it and will be sharing that code here once I’ve licked a few bugs, integrated it with Bit.ly instead of TinyURL, and made it a little easier to configure. I’m using Dreamhost’s fairly simple CRON job panel to run this script every 10 minutes. Stay tuned for that code in the near future.

I’ve also made a slight change to the way the Mobile photos category is displayed. Instead of just showing the title of the mobile photo this page now shows a small thumbnail of the image. Since these images can be in both portrait and landscape modes, I had to do some jiggery pokery to only show a portion of the image, without resizing them. Thanks to Jason Santa Maria for helping me with some of the CSS.

Viewing these pages on a mobile phone with a browser that supports text only will still be a bear, I’m sure, but they should load much faster now on iPhones, iPod touches, Android-powered phones, and the upcoming Palm Pre.

For my next trick, I’ll be changing the way the videos category and posts are displayed.

Web applications that I use on my iPhone

September 17th, 2008

“Use on mobile phones and sites you use to keep up to date and others in the loop.”

And I thought the llama suggestion was going to be tough to write?  What the heck does this suggestion actually mean?  It isn’t like I was able to ask who suggested it, because it was suggested anonymously.  What’s worse is that it was voted for 3 times!

I’ll do my best. I’m going to separate this suggestion into two posts. This first one is called “Web applications that I use on my iPhone”. The second will be called “Web applications and sites I use to stay in the loop”. How is that? Good? Good.

I have over 4Gb free on my 8Gb iPhone 2G. So I don’t install a lot of applications, store a lot of music or photos on my phone. Surely I must use a large number of Web applications or sites to get things done on my iPhone? Well, not really.

I have tried a lot of different Web applications on my iPhone.  I always like to see what sticks.  But for me, these are my most frequented URLs on the go.

Brightkite – As I’ve written about so many times in the past, Brightkite is quickly becoming my favorite social network to update while I’m mobile.  It automatically updates Twitter for me, which was what I used to update, so it is a two-fer.  The granular preferences and notification features are gold.

Hahlo – Since there are still a number of people that I follow on Twitter that have yet to make the jump to Brightkite, though I believe they will at some point in the future, I still have to “check” Twitter from time to time.  And, to be honest, that is where most of the conversation is anyway.  When I asked for help via Brightkite, and it updates Twitter, the number of answers I get via Twitter is much higher than on Brightkite.

This isn’t to say that Hahlo isn’t probably the best iPhone Web application I’ve ever used.  It is certainly the best Twitter Web application built for the iPhone. In fact, from the remarks I’ve read and discussed with others, it still beats the native applications without beating a sweat.

Flickr mobile – A site most definitely not built for the iPhone experience, but it works, and I don’t know any alternative.  I’ve tried Exposure and, while I admire the skill of Frasier Spiers, I do not think Exposure is the right approach to a native iPhone Flickr application.  For quick updates, m.flickr.com works for now.

Google Reader – Every now and then I will read a few posts on the Google Reader iPhone interface.  I don’t do this very often, but it is on my home screen and so it is getting a mention here.

Wait, that’s it?  As far as Web applications is concerned, that is it.  That is all I use frequently.

 

What web applications do you use on your iPhone?

FriendFeed on the iPhone

July 1st, 2008

An iPhone with FriendFeed on it.

FriendFeed, of which I’m a member, recently launched an iPhone-friendly version of their site.  Notably, however, they’ve done it in such a way that I much prefer to some of the ways other sites have done it.  They detect the iPhone’s mobile browser and automatically format it for you, rather than requiring you to remember the URL of the iPhone-friendly site.

Flickr, on the other hand, has a mobile Website that – while it works fairly well on the iPhone (though it isn’t built for it) – is not interchangeable with the normal Website.  What I mean to say is, if someone links me to a Flickr photo on my iPhone either via Twitter, FriendFeed, or even through an SMS message – I’m forced to be taken to the full-fledged, slow-loading Website without so much as the choice of loading the mobile version.  At least with Twitter I’m able to simply prepend the URL with m.*, which switches the site into “mobile mode”, and see the same content.  Flickr’s URLs for their mobile site aren’t hackable.

FriendFeed does have hackable URLs ((Just insert /iphone/ into any URL.)). Combine the hackability of their URLs with the detection of the iPhone and you’ve got nearly a perfect solution for iPhone users.

Side note: I love the FriendFeed looks nearly the same on my iPhone as it does on my personal computer.  FriendFeed’s design lends itself to this because of its simplicity, lightness, and straight-forward “the content is the design” approach.

Source: FriendFeed iPhone interface.
Via: TechCrunch: FriendFeed Finally Gets iPhone Friendly ((I don’t like the use of the word finally in this title.)).

iPhone 3G price comparison

June 16th, 2008

You may have already seen this, but if you’re thinking about buying or upgrading to an iPhone 3G next month, you need to see this.

Gizmodo took the time to compare the prices, monthly plans, and plan features for the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G, and the leading Smart Phones on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint.  What you’ll find is that the iPhone 3G will cost you more than the original iPhone after 2 years but it will cost you just about as much as the other leading Smart Phones on the market.

Hat tip: John Gruber.
Source: iPhone 3G’s True Price Compared.