April 2009
79 posts
“Ninety percent of clients will be happy with your first draft. Five percent will...”
– Sabrina Dent, talking at FOWD
“Astronomers in Hawaii have taken a photo of the most distant object in the...”
– Tim Siedell, via Twitter. Be sure to see the followup too.
“Fail is not a critique.”
– Victor Agreda Jr, via Twitter
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“Similar to Google’s Android platform, Microsoft will reportedly work with...”
– Microsoft to Launch iPhone Rival on Verizon Early Next Year? - Mac Rumors
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“On a recent Friday afternoon, a friend of mine went into a big mobile phone...”
– Why the iPhone is giving Apple telephone-number profits - The Observer
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“Twitter is great for watching uninformed panics unfold live.”
– xkcd on Swine Flu - Brilliant
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Tumblr reaches its 100,000,000th Post →
That’s a hell of a lot of posts. Congratulations to all at Tumblr on reaching the milestone!
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“The amount of traffic generated each month by YouTube is now equivalent to the...”
– The Sunday Times, in an article on the growth of the internet.
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The Typical Contents of Delicious' Hotlist →
via Download Squad comrade Jay Hathaway
How the OAuth Security Battle Was Won, Open Web... →
An interesting insight into why the Twitter OAuth API was taken offline last week. Twitter’s taken a lot of heat over this: and unfairly, I’d argue. Twitter’s OAuth beta status means ‘this stuff is liable to break’. Twitter API Developers, and TechCrunch, should bloody well learn that.
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“The UK Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) wants to charge for the...”
– National Rail Enquiries application angers customers - I have no problem with paying for the application, but I’m annoyed about the fact that they’re locking the data on train times into hideously-expensive licences.
Iconfactory teases Twitterrific 2.0 →
Nice little teaser site for the Iconfactory’s forthcoming Twitterrific 2.0 for iPhone release.
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Why I think SEO is bullshit →
Great article from Sam Brown. SEO consultants remain on the Internet Hitlist, right behind New Media Douchebags Consultants. (via Tim Van Damme)
FitnessTrack →
Neat looking app from Second Gear Software - ”Personal Fitness Tracking for your iPhone and iPod touch” - it’s currently awaiting approval from Apple.
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Mobile Network App Stores: Utter, utter rubbish... →
If you thought the App Store was bad, then this Mobile Industry Review piece will at least make you grateful for The Good Stuff that the iPhone SDK offers (namely a consistent form factor and distribution platform) in between criticism of the App Store’s many flaws. Thanks to Josh Russell for sending this one over.
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“AIR apps are like modern day Java applets… sure, they run on every platform. But...”
– Macworld interviews Tweetie creator Loren Brichter (via Dave Charter & Jamie Phelps)
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“If anything Baby Shaker sheds a light on what utter shit the AppStore acceptance...”
– Justin Williams, in response to my post yesterday. I couldn’t agree more.
Apple dumps 'Baby Shaker' app after complaints →
I’m lost for words at which is worse: the exceedingly poor taste of this application, or the fact that someone at Apple even thought it appropriate and approved it.
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“So, here’s a challenge for you, the Macalope’s vivacious and well-appointed...”
– The Macalope, in response to Garrett Murray’s recent post (via Justin Williams). It’s ironic that this evening, even before seeing this post, I started doing the very same thing. I’ve got very few apps on my iPhone (now up to 15 from the earlier 9) and I’m going to be making...
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Adobe Creative Suite's Console Crud
Steven Frank posts on the nonsense that CS3 and CS4’s activation system causes with the Console in OS X.
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“Apple is creating an ecosystem of the kind of customers I don’t want. With the...”
– Garrett Murray on the App Store
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Brighton Flickr Meet - This Friday! →
I’ve not been to a single Flickr meet since moving to Brighton last year, however I’ll be setting the record straight with the forthcoming April meet at the Bali Brasserie in Hove.
Here Before Oprah? →
Hilariously simple site that lets you check to see if a Twitter user was active before Oprah, via Mike Rose.
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LittleSnapper for iPhone is now out! →
There’s plenty of excitement today amongst us Realmac folks as LittleSnapper for iPhone [App Store link] has been approved! The application ($2.99) will let you stylishly take photos, snap webpages, and upload photos already on your iPhone or iPod touch to our QuickSnapper service.
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“You don’t really notice how much of a tumblr nerd you are until you are...”
– jspurg via Tumblr Radar
I’m also pretty sure this applies to Twitter and Flickr, but made me chuckle nonetheless.
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“We should have got our act together and organised a #digitalbritain unconference...”
– Bill Thompson via Twitter
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BBC iPlayer adds High Definition Downloads →
This is going to seriously irk some already-mad ISPs, but it’s a big step to have freely-downloadable HD content: even if the content expires, and the Mac version of the client looks like a toddler’s My First OS X Controls.
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eddit: Shop: iPhone UI Icon Set →
More UI awesomeness, this is a sweet $69 set of royalty-free icons for making super-gorgeous iPhone apps (via Mike Rundle)
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Recommended Read: River Town by Peter Hessler
I’ve never been further East than Poland, or farther South than Egypt, but I’ve always wanted to visit the Far East. China, Hong Kong, Japan. The culture shock, the utterly different history and the vastly different outlook on the world strike me as incredible things. Something to respect, admire and potentially learn from. I’ve also not read a great deal of travel literature,...
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Should Twitter Remove Its Follower Count? →
Short answer: No. Long answer: Still No. Follower counts are a useful metric (though, I hasten to add, not the only one) when deciding on whether to follow other people, particularly when you get new follower emails and go to check the person’s profile. I yearn for the day that Twitter give us more information about people: mainly, the number of common friends that I have with a certain...
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The Three20 Project →
If you’re creating iPhone apps, you’ll want to make the most of this awesome open-source UI goodness from Joe Hewitt (engineer at Facebook who uses the same code in their iPhone app).
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“The only difference between the way humans have been behaving badly for years,...”
– Not safe for work: Fool disclosure - A great piece by Paul Carr in the Guardian today.
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GPL: Free as in Herpes T-shirt →
Hilarious, via Andy Kim on Twitter
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5 Webform UX antipatterns to avoid →
A well-illustrated set of anti-patterns for designing Log-in and Registration areas (via James Wragg)
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Pulp Browsers →
More awesomeness from Elliott Kember
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SpreadTweet hides your Twitter stream in a fake... →
Super-awesome creation from Elliott Kember.
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Is it Arial or Helvetica? →
Once there was a typeface called Helvetica. It was extremely popular. Later came a software company called Microsoft. They “borrowed” Helvetica for their operating system and called it Arial. This inferior typeface is now on millions of desktops all over the world. Can you tell the difference between the original and the rip-off in these ten examples?
Awesome.
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Glyphish — Icons and resources for iPhone... →
A slick set of free, Creative-Commons licenced glyphs ready for iPhone and desktop use.
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“I’m going to charge what I believe is a fair market value for my products and...”
– Justin Williams
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Web 3.0, courtesy of Digg →
Created by Clint Ecker, via Dave Chartier
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Observations from 5 minutes with 'the touchscreen...
Last week I found myself chatting with Antony Ribot (of Ribot fame), and was able to grab some time with ‘the touchscreen Nokia whose number eluded us’. (If you’re curious, it’s the memorably-named 5800 XpressMusic.) I’ll admit that my time with the device was short - probably no more than a few minutes - but a fascinating look at mobiles away from the iPhone,...
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Another Awesome (Non-Black, Geeky) Threadless Tee →
“The internet was closed so I thought I’d come outside today.”
Brilliant.
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“Speaking of tools, I’ve already seen douchebags bitching that four measly bucks...”
– Simon Crowley, via Jamie Phelps
Amen to that.
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Threadless Tee: "The Gaming Revolution" →
I’m forever looking out for geeky t-shirts that aren’t in black. This one looks absolutely awesome.
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“Wait! Why is Truveo doing this? Holy shit they’re framing Revision 3! Did you...”
– Touché, Kevin Rose (via Clint Ecker)
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YouTube - Creme That Egg! →
Awesome Rube Goldberg machine used to smash a Creme Egg. According to the description “it took about 6 months to build and 3 days / 200 takes to film” (via Elliott Kember)
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“The BBC is an institution of genius, one of the great achievements of the 20th...”
– David Mitchell: I’ll tell you what really offends me
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5 iPhone Apps and Updates for the Easter Weekend →
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Handling Big XML Files on iPhone →
jxpx777:
Jim Dovey (aka @ alanQuatermain) has come up with what looks like a tremendous solution for handling very large (20MB+) XML files on the iPhone. Jim tested with a large (22 megabyte) XML file.
Super handy if you’re working with big XML files.
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“If you are a newer site struggling to build trusted link equity in the current...”
– Just Say No to Digg’s DiggBar, via Clint Ecker & Dave Chartier