Both Flock and Opera released a beta today.
Flock is Windows only, but the big news is that they moved to Chromium from Firefox as their base.
Opera continues to optimize their new rendering engine, and it does feel fast.
WebThe UPS van just delivered these two cases for the iPad:
Kensignton iPad Case
Classic neoprene sleeve that I use for my laptop. Wonât protect agains hard bumps, but it keeps the iPad away for flying debris on bags. Fits snugly and for $5.99, you really canât go wrong.
Ctcstore Leather Flip Book Jacket/Folio:
CTCstore iPad Case
I think leather is not the most accurate term for this leathery plastic. I mostly bought this case as a stop-gap measure for my Dadâs iPad until the Apple iPad Case is back in stock. Itâs not too bad, but doesnât do justice to the iPad inside. It feels cheap and Iâm pretty sure it wouldnât survive too long with heavy use. Iâm also not crazy on how it holds the iPad in place: two elastic straps that cover a little bit of the screen corners and a leather strap where you place one side of the iPad.
Itâs $26.25, and does satisfy my Dadâs main requirements for a while. You get what you pay for in this case.
Apple ReviewWhen traveling abroad, how you use your iPhone changes. Not only should you be looking outside -rather than checking twitter/facebook- but also, your phone should be either in airplane mode, or with data roaming off.
Without a constant connection, itâs important to think ahead a bit so you can have most of the functionality you come to expect from your iPhone. There are also little apps that help you make the most out of your trip.
Below my most used ones:
City Maps 2Go $1.99
City Maps 2 Go is a perfect application for tourists on city trips and locals who need an offline-available, quick and cost-effective tool to navigate with their iPhone and iPod Touch.
Google Maps for iPhone is amazing, but without internet (or a jailbreak), itâs totally worthless. This app uses the OpenStreetMap data, and while limited, itâs a lifesaver when youâre lost in a new city trying to find your hostel. Remember to download the maps of cities before hand, since theyâre fairly large.
GlobeMaster $0.99
Offline world-wide travel guide for 260+ countries and 1400+ cities.
This is basically a curated Wikitravel content for the iPhone. Itâs no substitute to a good city guide. But if youâre just passing by, it has most of what you need.
Global SOS $0.99
Are you a traveler? Do you frequently go abroad? In an emergency would you know the right foreign emergency numbers to call for help?
Luckily I didnât have to use this app. But everywhere I went, it displayed the important numbers. Itâs an useless app, until you need it.
I need to read to fall asleep, thatâs just the way Iâm wired. If youâre staying in hostels or sharing a room, you usually canât turn the light on. With the white on black setting, these app let me read without bothering anyone. If you own a Kindle, you get the added benefit of picking up where you left once you get back.
AutoStitch $1.99
This application unleashes the power of your iPhoneâs camera to create wide-angle views and panoramas with any arrangment of photos.
Sometimes you want to record exactly what youâre seeing. I havenât found a better way than a wide-angle shot.
Every so often youâll find an open Wi-Fi: call your mom.
Extended Battery
Not technically an app, but without juice, you wonât be able to use any of the above for long. I have the RichardSolo 1800 ($69.95) which is on the expensive side, but it has a standard mini-USB connector and a LED flashlight. There are cheaper options, but do get one.
I used all of these with my iPhone 3GS, of course, your milage may vary.
Review TravelStill not back in Oslo, but the vacation is over.
Lots of cool stuff happened in the last month. Below, a five word commentaries:
iPhoneOS 4 announced
RIM launched Twitter for BlackBerry
Opera Mini 5 for iPhone approved
Apple updates MacBook Pro models
Next iPhone leaked/found/stolen
Long story short, Iâm leaving Opera Software ASA. Iâll be an employee for a while longer but with 10.51 out the door, you wonât see me around the office that much.
Now is the time to click play at the top of this post1.
I truly enjoyed my time in Opera. The people are beyond cool, I was always surrounded by geeks with an extraordinary drive to make the best product possible. Exactly type of place I like working in.
In addition, I had the opportunity to live in Norway, an amazing country filled with reserved-yet-welcoming people. If youâre ever around, wait until the second beer, thatâs when Norwegians true personality appears.
I could go on and on about the great friends Iâve made and all the rest, but The Pogues said it best:
Iâm sad to say I must be on my way/So buy me beer and whiskey âcause Iâm going far away/Iâd like to think of me returning when I can/To the greatest little boozer and to Sally MacLennane.
Regarding whatâs next, nothing official yet. There are crazy plans, and sensible ones. Some are close, yet most are far away.
Whatever the case, Iâm excited. Itâs a great time to be a geek, and there is no excuse for not doing something great.
The Pogues - Sally Maclennane. Official soundtrack of this post. â©ïž
Destroying my previous wishful thinking post, Cantvâs President has stated:
The upcoming installation of a single access point for all internet traffic has nothing to do with controlling or censoring network information.
Itâs true that Venezuela is one of the few countries in Latin America1 that doesnât have its own NAP (Network Access Point). This means that when visiting most web sites - even local ones - traffic goes through either La Guaira or Pto. Cabello2, to a NAP in Florida and then returns.
While there certainly is a speed and cost penalty, its magnitude is debatable. However, given Chavez recents threats against news websites and twitter, itâs no surprise that a technical discussion quickly leads to censorships concerns3.
If/when the Government makes private operators route their traffic through this new NAP, the technical elements for web censorship in Venezuela will be in place.
Initially, my main concern is not censorship, but repression. As far as I can tell, most political activities organized by university students use some sort of social network tool.
Without safe access to these tools, a non-violent movement will be difficult to organize and support.
Most geeks I know have a ritual I call the âfake shopping cartâ or FSC. This is basically the online version of window shopping.
The principles are similar, go to your website(s) of preference, and try multiple configurations until you build a dreamy new setup. Just the like intricate and confusing world of female fitting rooms, FSC is not only about one item, itâs about choosing the best combination of products.
Obviously - best - is relative. Although some geeks practice no-limits FSC, the real fun only happens when a certain spending restriction is established. The restriction itself doesnât have to be realistic at all - you could try to build the best setup for $15.000, a budget that a new imaginary sports team owner like you deserves. In any case, some sort of limit is considered good practice.
Ever since Apple switched to Intel, my FSC has focused around notebooks. While I loved my iBook G3 and G4 machines, they felt underpowered. The jump in performance of the MacBooks made my dream of an affordable notebook with enough power to substitute a desktop real. Of course, there was still room for lots of debate, MacBook vs. MacBook Pro, screen size, RAM, hard-drive capacity and the obligatory external monitor brand question1.
Recently though, Apple has shaken my FSC beliefs with the introduction of the latests iMacâs and the announcement of the iPad.
On my last winter holiday I went to Venezuela and the US. For the first time since Iâve owned a laptop, I left the MacBook behind and only took the iPhone. I was surprised how little I missed it.
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad, he said that Apple saw a space between the iPhone and the MacBook. However, if you played FSC with a realistic budget recently, you may have found yourself in this situation: more often than not, you choose an iMac over a MacBook.
During his talk at this yearâs MacWorld, John Gruber mentioned that next year, he would have to pick between two Apple platforms when choosing where to create, and deliver, his presentation. If the answer to this and other mobile tasks starts to be the iPad, then the functionality give the price of the mobile iMac (the MacBook), becomes questionable.
As soon as I add the iPad to my equation, the MacBook vs. iMac debate shifts from one-size-fits-all to best tool for each job.
The arrival of the iPad at Apple Stores next month is going to mark the beginning of a deadly fight. Not with Google or Microsoft, but within Apple product lines. This is not a problem for Apple, since Jobs probably believes that if anyone is going to cannibalize Mac sales, it better be Apple itself.
However, for Mac fans, itâs judgement time. Itâs now time to pay for sins against the Apple II.
It must be said that Mac users usually have less of a hard time with the facts, since Apple is very good at differentiating their product lines. On the other hand, the self-analysis of what you actually need, can be maddening and humbling. â©ïž
Shaun Inman talks about his upcoming game, Mimeo and the Kleptopus King:
At its core, play, and by extension video games, is learning. Call it discovery or mastery but a good game introduces new ideas (teaches), leverages existing ones (reviews) and layers them to create unique challenges (tests).
mimeo-woods
The concept and images look great, but it goes beyond that:
In addition to creating the scenario, programming and designing all the graphics Iâm also composing and producing all the music.
If you donât think coding is art, you at least need to accept that game-development is.
/via Daring Fireball
WebI have already professed my love for Instapaper. Below, three recent articles I enjoyed:
Interview with Mark Pincus, Adam Bryant
One thing I did at my second company was to put white sticky sheets on the wall, and I put everyoneâs name on one of the sheets, and I said, âBy the end of the week, everybody needs to write what youâre C.E.O. of, and it needs to be something really meaningful.â And that way, everyone knows whoâs C.E.O. of what and they know whom to ask instead of me. And it was really effective.
Profile: Jack Churchill, Robert Barr Smith
He organized his men into six parallel columns and, since the heavy undergrowth ruled out any chance of a silent advance, sent them charging through the darkness shouting âcommando!â The yelling not only minimized the risk of Commandos shooting each other in the gloom, but also confused the German defenders, to whom this fierce shouting seemed to come from all directions in the blackness of the night.
Easy = True, Drake Bennett
ReviewWhen people read something in a difficult-to-read font, they unwittingly transfer that sense of difficulty onto the topic theyâre reading about. Schwarz and his former student Hyunjin Song have found that when people read about an exercise regimen or a recipe in a less legible font, they tend to rate the exercise regimen more difficult and the recipe more complicated than if they read about them in a clearer font.
Liza LĂłpez, from El Nacional (in Spanish), writes:
The reform to the Telecommunications Law, left in a drawer since 2008, establishes a single, state-controlled access point, as in Cuba, China and Iran. The presence of cuban vice-president Ramiro Valdés, known as the censor in the island, and congressmen statements over the terrorist character of social networks, have unleashed suspicions.
Six months ago, I wrote:
The government can, and probably will, establish some sort of online censorship. It will not work as expected for the reasons already mentioned. Nevertheless, they will be able to monitor a lot of traffic. And if things someday really heat up, they can disrupt most important Web sites for a considerable period of time.
Iâll revisit my notes and post some useful links when the technical aspects become clearer. However, this is not good.
We are about to see if a generation that grew up under internet freedom, is going to tolerate Government meddling of Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger.
Venezuela NewsI love bookmarklets.
When I shared some of mine last year, I explained that as I moved from Firefox to Opera, bookmarklets had managed to fill almost all the gaps left by Operaâs lack of extensions.
Quix takes all of this to a whole new level. It lets you have 1 bookmarklet that can access all the rest. In a way, itâs a command line for bookmarklets.
If you are an Opera/Firefox/Camino user, youâll probably wonder why you need this at all. You could just add a keyboard shortcut to your favorite ones and be done with it.
Thatâs exactly what I thought until yesterday. The big benefit for me, is that you can have the bookmarklet for many browsers (I know, blasphemy). Iâm usually running a few versions of Opera at the same time, while also development versions of the other guys.
The second great feature is not out yet, but itâs in the works. Currently, you can add your own bookmarklets with a pretty simple syntax. I easily wrote my own syntax text file and created a customized version of the bookmarklet. Now, the really cool part will come when commands sharing is available.
web(via First &âŠ
I recently found out from Neven Mrgan that you could put your iPhone in a plastic bag, and still use it like normal. (via First & 20)
I plan to use the same trick when I take my Kindle to the beach sometime in the future.
Every time Apple has an event in which they announce a new product, I need about a week to get out of Jobs reality distortion field1 and be able to process information on my own again.
Mind you, the post-event week is not easy on us geeks. Itâs an emotional and intellectual roller coaster. You go through euphoria, disappointment, hope, financial analysis and inner-discovery in a short period of time. Then you open Google Reader, and it starts all over again.
So, the iPad. Itâs here. If you have followed some of the news you may have heard the following:
To which I say: No, yes, not really.
There is no question that the iPad shares most of the same DNA as the iPhone. But so does a dolphin with an orca. Point is, the fact that something so different looks like it works in such a similar way, speaks volumes of the detail that went into making this device.
The similarities of the iPad with the iPhone are not because of laziness on Appleâs part. Most likely, itâs the results of a strict design restriction. If you own an iPhonesOS device (like other 75 million people) you needed to be able to know how to use the iPad. Which you do.
Should you run out and get it? Probably not. Am I getting one? Of course. -âBut,â- you say -âit doesnât have a camera!â- I know. -âAnd it doesnât even support multitasking!â- Very true. -âWhat about your new Kindle?â- Would you shut up and hear me out?
Ok, I got nothing. However, this is about you, not me.
There are couple reasons why should wait a little. For starters, if the iPhone and iPod touch are any indication, itâs likely Apple will update the storage sizes and maybe the prices around November. Also, unlike with the iPhone, it looks like Google â& partnersâ will be able to quickly deliver their own answer for this segment in the same timeframe.
Obviously, all of this assumes that the hoopla around the tablet form-factor has legs. Which I believe it does.
If you typically turn on your TV and immediately open you laptop, youâll eventually feel the need for the iPad. If do the same with your iPhone or mobile phone, it would happen even sooner.
Try not to dismiss the iPad (or the whole tablet category for that matter) because you feel perfectly fine with your laptop or netbook. Most people where perfectly fine with CD player six years ago, and with a basic Nokia phone even more recently.
With the iPad, Apple has clearly signaled where they think personal computing is going. Or at least, where they are going to stubbornly pull it towards. Make no mistake about it, the iPhoneOS is the future of the Mac.
In desktop OSes, all complexity is staring back at you every time you use an application. My Mom can always find a way to change something once, and never be able to get back to the same place ever again. I call this UI dead-ends.
On good touch UIâs, this isnât as common. The iPhoneOS has a great UI.
Thatâs why there will be an iPad in your wish-list someday. Maybe not this year, but sooner or later youâll see how effortlessly something is done on it. A task that usually takes more than a couple clicks on your computer will be done with a few gestures.
Then youâll know. Just like I do now. That you need one.
If you donât understand the reality distortion field, the closest analogy I can give is that itâs like withdrawal symptoms. You know that you are in a place that is not good for you, but you donât want to leave. You feel safe, real-world problems donât apply to you, and youâre convinced you can stop believing whenever you want. â©ïž
Still, no equal. The Apple iPad.
More blah than awe.
Still, no equal. The Apple iPad.
Less than a day before Apple is supposed to reveal their new Tablet, I wanted to write my thoughts on the Kindle 2.
Iâve had my Kindle for a month, and it that time it has doubled my volume of reading. Which, by my own measurement, makes it a great device.
The Kindle design is elegant, strong and lightweight. Specially important, the screen quality is newspaper-like, and using it for an hour every night doesnât tire my eyes at all. The software is also very polished, with almost everything being very self explanatory.
My biggest surprise has been how much I use the New Oxford American Dictionary. This was one of the âmehâ features when I was deciding to purchase, but I continually find myself doing quick-checks on words. Many of these I already sort-of knew, but on a few occasions Iâve found historical and geographical references that in the past I would have just overlooked.
Only issue I have with comes from the Location, which is the Kindleâs version of a page number. I understand that with the ability to change the font size, in conjunction to being able to read content in other devices with very different screen sizes, leads to difficulties in having a static page number. Nevertheless, the current implementation which looks like 1239-48, is confusing.
The Amazon Store is pretty good. With an acceptable selection of eBooks that while it doesnât contain every book I had on my wish-list, it has enough available to keep me busy.
One thing to note about the store, specially if you donât live in that US, is that prices are extremely competitive. Newer books are cheaper than paperbacks here in Norway, and even if I bought the books from Amazon UK, the final price would be almost the same.
Finally, one of the best things about the Kindle has nothing to do with Amazon. Itâs called Instapaper. With this Web app, you can easily save for later any article you find online. Iâve used the iPhone application since it came out and itâs brilliant. On the Kindle, you can download your most recent 20 articles or have them delivered automatically every week.
In conclusion, compared to physical books, the Kindleâs lightness and dictionary take the prize. In regards to the iPhone, where I can compare my use of Instapaper, the screen really makes a big difference for extended reading. But the biggest advantage is the Kindleâs lack of any good use other than reading. When I pick up a Kindle, I read. There is no Twitter, RSS, email, games, etc.
Tomorrow Apple is probably going to tell us why their Tablet should be the one starting point for all media consumption. From TV shows to the internet. In terms of reading, theyâll probably be right for magazines, newspapers, comics and school texts.
But if you want to sit down and quietly read a book, I think the Kindle will still be the best device tomorrow evening.
I like desktop applications. I like how fast they feel compared to Web apps, even when you have a really fast connection. Yet, there is no denying that the convenience of having your information in âthe cloudâ canât be beat. Especially when you have a multi-computer and multi-phone environment, as I do.
Recently, the application that I use the most are not those that are in the cloud, but the ones the use it. My current favorite on the Mac is Dropbox. It transparently lets me keep the same files across computers. Using some trickery, this allows me to have the same files and settings between my MacBooks.
This integration with the cloud works even better on the iPhone. The lack of filesystem (from the user point of view) stops you from thinking about files in regards to where they are saved, and lets you mentally associate the files with which application uses it.1
Some desktop applications that deal with the Web manage to create an experience that is just as simple. Tweetie and NetNewsWire are better ways to experience than the original Twitter and Google Reader web apps. You get all the speed and native look that desktop applications provide and still take advantage of being able to log-in anywhere and have all your data.
This is what Apple tries to do in iPhoto and iTunes. Which drives many Windows users crazy. â©ïž
While browsing the Vintage Ad Browser I came across a Sony ad for their portable AM-FM Transistor Radio. It was published in Life Magazine on June 12, 1964 and instantly reminded me of the original iPhone image on Apple.com
iPhone and Sony FM radio
Of course, there are only so few ways you can hold a device, but I still think this two are near identical.
Web GeekAfter watching Avatar, I was particularly interested by the language spoken by the alien beings. Turns out that they created a whole language for it. Its creator even posted some of the rules.
LanguageWith this post Iâm trying out Googleâs new URL shortening service http://goo.gl/. It currently only works with the Google Toolbar and Feedburner service, but surely they will soon make it available for everybody.
In my case, itâs substituting Twitterfeed, a service that grabs a RSS feed and can post it to twitter or Facebook. Since I already use Feedburner to handle my feed, I want to see how much faster the posting to twitter happens.
Jenna Wortham on the NYTimes Bits blog writes about how this entrance by Google is going the affect bit.ly, the current market leader. They where very quick to announce a Pro version that allows the use of custom urls.
I actually bought http://»rm.com/ a few months ago. Not that my media empire needs a shortening URL service, but I do believe that short URLs are going to become as important as normal domain names.
Finally, as if waiting for a cue, Inside Facebook writes that Facebook is testing fb.me as a short Url.
Geek WebDroplr is a quick and easy way to share files on the Mac.
Iâm a little perplexed with this app. It really doesnât do anything revolutionary. For that matter, 99% of its features are easily reproduced with either one or a few apps already installed.
However, it makes it extremely easy to share, and it does it well. Just grab a file, picture, text or Url and drop in on its icon, and it returns a ShortUrl (customizable btw).
In case youâre wondering, here is a picture of me perplexed http://drp.ly/3FF4t
Web App ReviewThis week the WSJ reported (here and here) that Simon & Schuster, Lagardere SCAâs Hachette Book Group and HarperCollins are going to delay eBooks releases for a few months after the hardcover comes out.
Needless to say I believe this is a terrible idea. But as I read some of the executiveâs comments, I found myself talking back to the computer screen just like I do when I drive.
From an article by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg on the WSJ:
âThe right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback,â said Carolyn Reidy, CEO of Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS Corp. âWe believe some people will be disappointed. But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now, before the installed base of e-book reading devices gets to a size where doing it would be impossible.â
Where do I start?
The right place for the e-book is after the hardcover but before the paperback.
False. eBooks and physical books are not perfectly substitutable goods. If you must, release a hardcover edition eBook first and then cheaper paperback version later. Itâs very safe to assume that once you buy an eBook reader youâll try to buy and read all your books on it.
We believe some people will be disappointed.
Oh. So, you know consumers (not âpeopleâ) will be disappointed. You guys are aware that you arenât a public institution, right? If you decide a policy, the consumer (again, not âpeopleâ) doesnât need to go along with it. Do yourself a favor and google New Coke.
But with new [electronic] readers coming and sales booming, we need to do this now âŠ
Yes, because the best thing you can do to prepare yourself for a disruptive new technology is to treat it as a second class citizen just before its numbers explodes.
But the brilliance doesnât end there, here is David Young, chief executive of the Hachette Book Group:
âWeâre doing this to preserve our industry,â Mr. Young said. âI canât sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices. Itâs about the future of the business.â
Again, let me inhale deeply:
Weâre doing this to preserve our industry
No youâre not. Youâre doing this because youâre afraid of change and have no idea how to make the same kind of money in this new environment. The transportation industry didnât die when horse-drawn carts where phased out by motor vehicles. But youâre right, those companies that didnât recognize the change are history.
As George Carlin said:
The planet is fine. The people are fucked.
The book publishing industry is going to be fine. Youâre fucked.
I canât sit back and watch years of building authors sold off at bargain-basement prices.
I know itâs a figure of speech, but delaying a book format release date is not really getting off your butt and innovating yourself out of this situation. BTW, there are lots of books sold at bargain-basement prices in current analog bookstores. You should look into that before getting all high and mighty about eBooks prices.
Itâs about the future of the business.
Exactly. The business. Your business. Writers are not going to disappear. They might even find ways of selling directly and -gasp- bypass publishing houses completely. Indeed, itâs time you think about your future.
From the WSJ, Brian Murray, chief executive of News Corp.âs HarperCollins Publishers:
Earlier this year, the Harper imprint of HarperCollins delayed until Dec. 26 the e-book edition of Sarah Palinâs âGoing Rogue.â
A quick search on http://thepiratebay.org shows that the eBook is available there. In the digital world, the alternative of something not officially available is not the analog world. Itâs piracy.
âWe have to believe that delaying the e-book edition helped hardcover sales,â he said.
Hey, whatever helps you sleep better at night. I also have to believe that Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals because I didnât get a chance to compete.
Being an MBA grad, I can relate how having your head stuck up your own behind can make it difficult to notice new trends. But câmon! executives in these companies have seen the writing on the wall for years. In many cases they can ask within their own parent companies to learn how all this affected the music, movie and TV industry.
I know there is no easy solution when disruptive forces shake your industry. But repeating the same mistakes of the other media industries is inexcusable.
eBooksOverall it looks like very solid hardware on software thatâs not ready. I imagine this has a lot to do with why it missed the holiday season.
the Nook is an intriguing product launched by a powerful force in the world of booksellers, but the initial offering feels long on promises and short on delivery. With the right software revisions, the Nook could be a tsunami, but as it stands right now, itâs only a mild swell.
The hardware is fully baked, but as I have mentioned the software isnât.
The Nook has the potential to decisively trump the Kindle, but I want to see if Barnes & Nobleâs upcoming software update fixes the issues I encountered before I declare any winners.
Since itâs only available in the US, Iâm not very concerned with the Nook vs. Kindle decision process. Whatâs really holding me back is deciding between the Kindle and whatever Apple could come up with.
eBooks
Quick guide for picking the best chart depending of what you want to show with the data.
Arvind Narayananâs on why ebooks are going to take over soon:
The Kindle seems to be following roughly the same adoption curve as the iPod. Barely two years after it was first released, everyone my age has at least played with one or knows someone who has one.
While the Kindleâs brand awareness and mind-share seems be following the same path, it needs to deal with a significant obstacle: even if the price drops to zero, many users arenât yet convinced itâs better than physical book reading. Almost everyone that saw an iPod for the first time knew they wanted one, it was just deemed too expensive until the iPod mini was introduced at $249.
Now, from the point of view of authors (which Arvind kinda is), itâs a completely different story:
Amazon shares 35% of revenue with the author for self-published books. In one sense thatâs unfairly low: Apple for instance shares 70% of revenue with app publishers. Still, it is five times higher than royalties from a traditional book publisher.
If it becomes more financially attractive for middle of the curve authors to give priority to ebooks, in addition to the potential democratization of book publishing:
With ebooks, someone who thinks they are a great writer doesnât have to wait and beg to be discoveredâthey can find out for themselves by self-publishing, promoting their work on Facebook and Twitter, and seeing what kind of response they get.
You now have a technology adoption that is being driven by content exclusivity.
eBooksWhen I got an interview with Opera a year ago, I switched from Firefox 2 to Opera 9.5. Initially I thought that the âextensions withdrawalâ was going to be hard but after a few days I realized that CoLT was the only one I really missed . Copy Link Text (CoLT) copies any text you select plus the URL where its located. This is great for blogging, saving links for research and answering emails that require a lot of links1.
Update: Welcome KFG Links and Minimal Mac Podcast visitors, glad you find the bookmarklets useful.
In case youâre also using Quix, you can add the group below to your Command File for improved versions of all the bookmarklets.
You can also grab my whole Command File, which incidentally I made following Merlinâs post.
Now, back to reruns.
One of the reasons I didnât miss extensions that much was because most services I was using where already bookmarkets (or had one). Bookmarkelts are basically bookmarks that perform an action with the content in your browser window.
Famous ones include: Share on Facebook, Tumblr and Bookmark on Delicious. My personal favorites are Read Later, Post with Tweetie and Readability.
In any case, after some head-scratching I modified some existing bookmarklets to make them work for me:
If you select this very special text on a website and click on the bookmarklet you would get:
5typos.net
Page Title
http://website.com/address
this very special text
I made a couple that format everything in markdown since I use it to blog and write most of my documents.
Markdown Text: page title link and selected text as quote.
[Page Title](http://website.com/address)
>this very special text
Markdown Link: selected text as link.
[this very special text](http://website.com/address)
Markdown Title: you guessed it.
[Page Title](http://website.com/address)
All you have to do to save these bookmarklets is grab the underlined name and drop it in you bookmark bar. You can also right click and select save link to bookmarks in some browsers. In Opera, I assign shortcut to each one and just type tc on the URL bar to use it.
I hope somebody find these useful. They are a lifesaver for me.
I usually get a âWhat (iPod/laptop/phone/camera/service/software) should I get?â email every couple of weeks. I love these emails because it gives me an excuse to figure out whatâs going with different products. But you need to go through a lot of reviews and products pages. â©ïž
With Tweet Bubbles you can get floating notifications from a hashtag or user:
TweetBubbles is a tool which can make your presentation more exciting by live feeding Twitter during events or seminars.
Keynotetweet lets you post something when a slide comes up.
Simply add text inside the tags [twitter] and [/twitter] in the presenter notes section of a slide and when that slide comes up in the presentation the script will grab that text and send it to Twitter on your behalf.
I can see a very cool presentation being done by using these tools.
Geek toolFrom Paul Grahams Appleâs Mistake:
So I bought it, but I bought it, for the first time, with misgivings. I felt the way Iâd feel buying something made in a country with a bad human rights record. That was new. In the past when I bought things from Apple it was an unalloyed pleasure. Oh boy! They make such great stuff. This time it felt like a Faustian bargain. They make such great stuff, but theyâre such assholes. Do I really want to support this company?
I totally relate to this with my recent Apple purchases. It used to be that I loved what I bought. I was proud and happy to be called a fanboy. But recently, I just make sure itâs the best option (it still usually is) and keep my bragging to a minimum. Itâs how I used to feel when I bought something from Microsoft.
Iâve mentioned before that Apple needs to be careful with how they deal with the techie crowd. The geeks where the ones that influenced those around them by saying that Macâs werenât only cool now (circa 2002), but better. If they continue to turn their backs to geeks on the iPhone, their bottom-line wonât get hurt, but their mindshare will.
Webll the recent talk about the different new eReaders misses one crucial point: it is not about the devices, it is about the future of books.
Consider for a second that books havenât basically changed in the last few hundred years. Even things we take for granted online, like hyperlinks or recommendations do not remotely exist on books today. We use this concepts up until we purchase a book, but as soon as we open it, itâs back to the the 19th century. No wonder millennials donât read as many books as their parents.
Of course the literary purist in me believes that incorporating technology into books affects the essence of reading. The ability to think, imagine, and contemplate in silence a story, a phrase and, most important of all: an idea. Nevertheless we need to recognize that clinging to the âgood old wayâ is the easiest route to drive that âwayâ to obsolesce. If you donât believe me, ask Polaroid and Kodak how the film business is doing.
The new direction digital books will be able to take the reader should be as exciting and unpredictable as the Web browsing ride over the past 15 years. Imagine margin notes that are easily shared with twitter or Facebook, allowing you to experience a book in a social way. All the insights of a book club without the inconveniences. Or maybe being able to jump from the fictional book youâre reading to references of that historical era, or the characterâs inspiration or just facts about the author during the the period the book was being written.
Do you think DVD extras are great? Now imagine what authors could package-in with the books. From commentaries to deleted chapters chapters, giving them (and their publishers) the ability to complement a book with whatever they feel will make the content more value, is likely to result in more good than bad.
If you donât feel compelled to buy any of the current eBook readers, donât worry. The device that will make your bookshelf look like a vinyl record collection in the eyes of your children is not out yet. The Kindle is not the iPod of ebook readers. Itâs the Rio.
The device that is going to bring digital books to the masses is not the one that better recreates the analog experience. It will be the one that remixes sequential printed pages into something made of bits and pixels and gives authors more tools to tell a story.
EbooksWith Apple allowing In App Purchases for free apps, the era of Shareware for the iPhone has begun.
AppleI have seen somebody who has seen the future. The 10/GUI touch interface concept is nothing short of brilliant.
My thoughts on touch interfaces for the desktop from last year are quickly becoming obsolete but relevant.
DesignThanks to some poking by other smarter people, I managed to make the Apple remote work again with 3rd party apps (Boxee, Plex, Hulu, etc) on Snow Leopard.
Quick instructions:
The Apple Remote will no longer launch Front Row or control the volume, which allows you to use it on other apps. Of course, this is a fugly hack, please donât use unless you understand the consequences.
Apple tidbitI couldnât resist any longer. Iâve tried to post more regularly on robertomateu.com but at the end of the day, there are a lot of snippets of information and links I want to share. After reading Shawn Blanks post regarding link posts, I decided to start linkblogging again. Letâs see how this holds up.
ColophonOne Friday, when I was about 12, I attempted to escape from my school by jumping over a fence. My school had recently changed the rules for picking students up, and I couldnât just walk outside to wait for my parents. This meant that they would have to endure a 45 minute car-queue to pick me up. Which meant that picking up my little sister at her school would take even longer. All of this snowballed into a situation where our monthly trip to the beach had absolutely no margin for error with regards to time. This was unacceptable to my Mom.
That day, as the final bell rang, I followed some older kids on their escape/smoking route. As we arrived behind the gym it became obvious that the final hurdle was a 3 meter fence. I should mention that my sport of preference is swimming, mainly because the only athletics required is a jump into the water. Hence, my climbing was painfully slow. The other kids must have never heard about the âleave no man behindâ doctrine, because a minute later I was alone. Thatâs when Brother Ignacio uttered -âMr. Mateu?â- from below. I was sure my mortal life was going to be over soon. Not only was my Mom going to kill me over being late, but she was going to do it again when she found out I was expelled.
Surprisingly, Brother Ignacio just told me to get down and wrote my name down on a pad. He then turned and walked briskly away. It seemed that the new rule had driven most of the high schoolers to exploit all the known escape routes, and a massive âprison-breakâ was taking place.
Let me assure you that Brother Ignacio didnât have any issues with me spending the rest of the afternoon on detention. Yet, the total chaos taking place in different parts of the schoolyard made it impossible for him to concentrate on any one case. He was simply trying to monitor the situation as best he could.
Censuring the internet is similar. Itâs very hard to do. You have to block keywords, URLs, IP addresses and do hackie things to pollute DNS server connections. In a way, itâs much more difficult to censure half-way than to completely lock it down.
Over the past two weeks Iâve being trying to write a post about tools that get around an Iran-style Web lockdown of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and news sites. The recent #FreemediaVe circus on Twitter and its response by the government only reinforced my belief that some sort of Web censorship is on the horizon. However, the more I researched about the technical aspects of blocking traffic on the Web, the more I began to appreciate the political implications it would have internally and externally.
Lets be clear, the Venezuelan government has the technical capability1 to establish a fairly competent internet censorship model2. Be it a complete-control model like Saudi Arabia, a more flexible version like China, or a simple site filtering system like Norway. The state controls close to 90% of all broadband traffic through the re-nationalized telecommunications company. This is helpful if they are monitoring quietly at the moment, but making other internet providers and mobile operators comply with some sort of centralized system would not be a surprise to anyone.
The tough decision the government needs to take is what type of censorship it would go forward with. However, this is a political decision and its implications are considerable on the lives of urban Venezuelans3.
The current media control scheme in Venezuela is incompatible with internet censorship because the âenemies of the revolutionâ are not as clear to pinpoint. Unlike TV signals and cable channels, you donât eliminate NoticieroDigitalâs presence online by just blocking their URL. Most of their videos are hosted on Youtube for example. But if you block Youtube, about a thousand Aporrea videos disappear too.
The democratization of media on the internet means that completely opposite political views coexist on the same services. This happens every day, on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Hi5, Blogger, Wordpress, etc. The same tools that pro-chavéz individuals prefer to use online to express their views would likely fall under the censorship wall.
This a consequence of the Cute Cat Theory:
Web 2.0 was created so that people could publish cute photos of their cats. But this same cat dissemination technology has proved extremely helpful for activists, whoâve turned these tools to their own purposes.
All this time I have being imagining the problems activist on both sides would face with some sort of online censorship. Yet, if the political views of Venezuelaâs internet users are at all similar to the real-world, then 40% of them are Ni-Niâs. They are apolitical and donât really care too much one way or the other. Unless you mess with how they share party pictures, funny videos, use of social networking sites, etc.
Once you start censuring, everybody is affected. Anti-Chavéz, Pro-Chavéz, Anti-Anti, Pro-Anti, Mets fans that read NYtimes, European football followers that read the BBC; there are so many permutations of non-political content that coexists with political content on the same services, that you end up affecting a lot of people. As a result, everyone tries to find a way around it.
The Streisand effect defines this situation as:
The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.
Once you find a way to post your cute cats pics, you can do the same to post a picture of a National Guard shooting at crowds. By blocking something online, the government is going to push most internet users towards exploiting the system downfalls. Thatâs why Chinaâs censorship model puts so much effort into trying to make foreign services comply with their censorship rules and also encourage local services.
If the China system is sustainable on the long term, why then canât Venezuela apply a similar model? I see three main reasons:
Is everything is fine then? We have nothing to worry about, right? Yes we do. Remember what I said above: the government can, and probably will, establish some sort of online censorship. It will not work as expected for the reasons already mentioned. Nevertheless, they will be able to monitor a lot of traffic. And if things someday really heat up, they can disrupt most important Web sites for a considerable period of time. Next week Iâll point to some services to keep handy if Iran-style blockade happens and you want to post to Twitter, your blog, etc. But remember, just follow the cats.
Just to finish my escape-from-school story, I eventually got outside and told my parents what had happened. Without knowing what to say my mom just stammered -âWell, uh, next time âŠâ-, and my always proper Dad just added -âdonât get caughtâ-. I believe that recommendation is still valid.
According to Venezuelan Internet Profile:
⊠the government already monitors internet traffic through CANTV using a program similar to MRTG (Multi-Router Traffic Grapher). Government policy also requires all other internet service providers to monitor their traffic through a similar program.
The ability to monitor internet traffic does not necessarily lead to internet censorship. Although I donât think that Hugo ChĂĄvezâs revolution has any issues prioritizing ânational securityâ over individuals freedoms. â©ïž
According to Conatel, there were 7.552.570 million internet users in the first quarter of 2009 â©ïž
According to some, Blackberry have sold more than 500.000 devices. The biggest market in America after the US â©ïž
Over the past few months developer frustration over the App Store has increased considerably. Not because things are getting worse, but because they arenât changing, at all. The main the problem seems to be lack of clear rules with regards to why, what, how and when iPhone applications get published in the store.
Update: (01/08/09): The FCC sent letters to Apple, AT&T and Google inquiring about Appleâs rejection of the Google Voice app. This is going get interesting.
My big concern is that the App Store is such a money-maker, that most developers will just look the other way. The whole situation gives me the feeling of businessmen during right-wing dictatorships1: Itâs business as usual (99Âą fart apps) as long as you stay out of the way of the dictator (Apple). Problem is your most creative and important developers donât tolerate this environment. The see themselves as: The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.2
Donât doubt for a second that these developers would put ideology over numbers and stop developing for the iPhone. Thatâs exactly the reason why many of them moved to the Mac from Windows in the first place.
Hereâs a sampling of some of the developer comments and situations going around today:
stevenf.com » Iâm furious with Apple and AT&T right now, with regard to the iPhone
Thereâs been no indication that Apple want to do anything to resolve the problems with app store policies that have been laid bare a hundred times over. Thereâs no indication of anything, as a matter of fact. Nothing. After a year. Itâs a black hole yawning back at us.
With iPhone, Apple decides which independent applications will be allowed, and it can pull the plug on any application at any time, without explanationâas happened in July to several developers of iPhone apps. âI spent four weeks trying to get through to Apple via e-mail and phone calls, and they wouldnât return my messages,â says Cyrus Najmabadi, developer of an iPhone application called Now Playing, an online movie-theater guide that Apple yanked in July after receiving a complaint about the program.
From The Top » The Emperorâs New Clothes
As with many other serious iPhone developers recently, weâve made the hard decision to kill all but one project in progress, and stop investing any resources in creating new applications. Weâll continue to sell and fully support our existing iPhone offerings, however weâre already moving to platforms which show signs of real viability.
Where do I sign up? » by Justin Williams
More important than the money is my enjoyment as a developer. I no longer enjoy building software for the iPhone because of the bureaucracy and infrastructure that surrounds it. I can build great software for the Mac without the headaches and bullshit of dealing directly with Cupertino and their AppStore.
The effect of developers moving to other platforms takes a long time to register. But it does happens very fast once it starts. I love my iPhone, but if Instapaper, Tweetie, 1Password and Comiczeal were to move to Android, that would be reason enough for me to switch.
Apple should know better than anybody that itâs not about how many apps you have available in your platform, itâs about how great they are. Iâm pretty sure they understand this, and soon we will have another Steve Letter addressing the problems with AppStore and the planned improvements.
We had a couple in Venezuela. â©ïž
Text from Appleâs Think Different campaign. â©ïž
I love articles that show the design process for a website, UI or icon. Since I recently updated my twitter avatar and website favicon with a new design I thought it might be cool to show the different stages.
For creating most of my graphics I actually use Keynote. I think itâs because CorelDraw 7 was the program in which I learned. As a result, Iâm a vector kind of guy.
I usually start with a rough idea and duplicate the slide when I reach a design I like but want to keep experimenting with. Otherwise I make another blank page and move from there. If I need to do something that requires image editing I copy it to Acorn, and then copy back. Thatâs how I removed the small piece from the m.
To be fair, Iâve been using the concept of combining my initials in one letter for a while. So it was on the back of my mind at all times. For some reason, I keep ending there. I just like a lot how both letters fit together, and Iâm not the only one.
Looking ahead I want to add a little color to it. Maybe find a way for it to work better with my pic, since I believe that personal twitter accounts look better that way.
Design ColophonI have the same problem with my Web sites as I have with my Moleskines. Whenever I get a new one I spend hours setting it up. Making sure everything fits perfectly and looks great. But then, I open it, and draw a blank. Nothing I write is up to standards for the site. So then, I procrastinate the next blog post, get frustrated and eventually leave it at that.
If it doesnât come naturally, and Iâm not that good at it, why do it?
I have a confession to make: I didnât particularly like Radioheadâs OK Computer the first time I heard it. It has since become my favorite CD. But when I first heard it, it was too complex. I knew this was because I was too used to commercial rhythms. Before that I had rebelled against my classmates love for Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Guns and Roses by becoming a reggae fan1 (I know, I know). Point is, I understood that there was something beyond the 4/4 time and basic chords. So I listened to it again. And again. By the end of the week, I liked it. By the end of the month, loved it. A year later, I was enjoying my dadâs Pink Floydâs CDâs.
I need to believe that good writing is the same way. Itâs complex and not easy initially. But if you stick to it for a while it will grow on you. Because itâs what you want to happen.
After listening to Merlin Mann and John Gruber podcast about blogging, it became very obvious that I also didnât have an ideal reader in mind. Most of the time I just try to write something that mimics what some of the bloggers I look up to have already written. Which very quickly leads to disappointment because they have already done it (written about it, commented, etc) in a much more elegant way.
The easiest and most fun way to blog for me is the tumblelog. Where you either link or quote, and then comment. But itâs difficult to consider it writing. It also is arguable how useful these links are, especially with sites that make it easy for popular stuff to float to the front-page like Techmeme, Reddit and Digg. Most likely I wonât be able to contain myself and post links regularly. But I wonât consider this writing.
Iâm going to keep the focus on tech and tools. It is what Iâm passionate about, and either way, Iâm still thinking about it all the time. What Iâm going to change, is my idea of the target reader. Iâm going to concentrate in thinking about people I know (@federicoa, @carlosmherrera, @navjotpawera). Hopefully this will help keep my feet on the ground regarding topics, depth and insights that are expected.
If there is something about the new site that Iâm happy with, itâs the new engine behind it. Iâm using Jekyll (Update: the blog is now hosted on tumblr, feel free to laugh at me). For the reader, the only difference is that the site should now load super fast. Thatâs because itâs a static web site with a bunch of html files2. The site is generated on my Macs3 with a command line tool and I then rsync it to my server. The whole process is geeky, straight forward, and once setup: completely uninstrusive for concentrating on content. Iâm writing this post on TextMate using Markdown, the date-stamp and the link come from the name I give the file.
Well, letâs see how it works out this time around. Fourth time is the charm, they say.
For this reason my tolerance for UB40 is almost none nowadays. â©ïž
Of course, it is also much smaller on the server. The same amount of content took about 90% less space than Wordpress. Itâs true that I have 90% less features, but I was not using any of it. â©ïž
I have the folder for the site on Dropbox which lets work on the âlocalâ site, exactly the same way from home or the office. â©ïž
Although Battlestar Galacticaâs final episode turned out a little too religious for my taste, I still enjoyed it immensely. All in all, the writers managed to create one of those universes that Iâll miss and probably revisit in a few years (like Firefly). One thing I specially enjoyed was how a lot of the story fitted together in end, which was surprising after learning this:
I do feel good that the process I always believed in and really defended â about feeling the story instinctively as you go through it, and not being tied to, âOh, we know exactly how itâs going to end upâ
This âdonât over-planâ attitude reminded me a lot of:
Details reveal themselves as you use what youâre building. Youâll see what needs more attention. Youâll feel whatâs missing.
Good example of how by focusing at the âproblemâ at hand and not just imagining all possible upcoming ones, can actually help in creating something even better.
So say we all
TV ReviewThe Safari 4 beta got some people talking about how some it features would make a perfect fit (or not) for a touch device. The features in question are Top Sites (basically Appleâs implementation of Operaâs Speed Dial) and Cover Flow. Although this could perfectly true, I believe these features reflect more whatâs coming into the AppleTV than into the iPhone or âiPad Tabletâ
A recent patent regarding the AppleTV makes it even more compelling. With a Wii-remote like controller to point at things in the screen you can see how interacting with busy applications like a browser becomes viable in a set-top box. Having Opera already installed on my Wii, Iâm more than convinced of the usability and usefulness of this.
Browsing on your TV is no more unnatural than watching youtube on your desktop. Notice how with notebooks most at home browsing has shifted to the sofa in front of the TV. I donât think that an internet browsing AppleTV will become the center of your home browsing. But I do imagine something like this happening:
You are watching TV and chatting with a friend on your mobile phone. Somebody sends you a link and instead of opening it in the phone you âpass it alongâ to your TV screen. You can now continue to chat, share the link with anybody else close by (hopefully the link is SFW) and shift you attention back to the original video on the same screen.
The irony of integrating functionality into one device could be that by being able to do everything, they end up encouraging the use of other devices that are better at each specific function.
Web AppleSome notes from todayâs Apple iPhone OS 3.0 Preview (Quotes from: MacRumors)
- In-App Purchasing: Allows developers to sell additional content from within applications. Highlighted uses include magazine subscriptions, eBooks, additional levels and items for games.
Apple keeps 30% comission, so it makes sense that they want to encourage developers to sell even more. As long as itâs not music.
- Peer-to-Peer Connectivity: Find other devices running the app via Bonjour over Wi-Fi of Bluetooth. Good for gaming, but also other applications for sharing data.
Iâm concerned for Nintendo DS. May the PSP rest in peace.
- Third-Party Accessory Apps: Allowing accessory manufacturers to create applications to interface with their hardware accessories.
Huge market opportunites and very cool. Just the idea of a compact external keyboard makes me reach for my wallet.
- Push Notification: Rather than using background processes that hamper battery life, utilize third-party server to push badge, text, and audio alerts from applications.
Better late than never. Useful for some apps. But they need to release iChat pronto. Messaging creates important network effects.
- Turn by Turn: Apple will allow developers to use CoreLocation for turn-by-turn GPS directions.
Nice. Donât have a car, but I can see how GPS sales will be affected.
- Cut, Copy and Paste: Available across all apps. Shake to undo or redo.
Welcome to 1993.
- Landscape keyboard: Available in all key applications, including Mail.
- MMS: Picture messaging now available.
- Voice Memos: Record notes, lectures, interviews, etc.
Yawn. 3rd party apps already dealt with these.
- Spotlight Search: Available across all applications. Systemwide search available from main home screen by flicking to the left.
Very welcomed. But Iâm sure we still havenât seen the full scope of the springboard updateds.
- A2DP Bluetooth: Support for stereo bluetooth headsets.
Not that relevant yet. But wireless headphones could be the future.
All in all, nothing groundbreaking. But this was a developer event and the announcements are very important for the. But still, I think a lot of people are sleeping a little bit better at Palm.
Apple