Because I know there will be times when I want to do a quick post from on the road, or do a comment moderation on the run.
Tag Archives: iphone
IMAP on Google: Took Them Long Enough…
I guess Google thought I wasn’t cool enough, because starting last week, Gmail had been phasing in IMAP. But today, they’ve finally announced the darn thing for everyone.
Seriously. Took them long enough! I guess it wasn’t ranked high on the list of priorities at Google, seeing how iPhone users are like one in a million (and yes, I know there are non-iPhone users who would be interested in IMAP… but I’m sure the push for it had to do something with it). But still, I trusted Google to step it up and to bring their A game. I didn’t want to create some kind of kludge forwarding system to Yahoo! and have to deal with other accounts.
Huzzah.
Another End, Another Beginning
After spending a day and a half in Cincinnati, I’m back to Illinois.
Please… no more driving. For a little while? Heh.
Excited? You betcha. A new MacBook Pro waiting for me in less than 12 hours… I kid. I’m very excited about what I’ll be getting to do for NCSA. I got a taste of it after I had a lunch meeting with them this past Monday. This first week’s probably going to be spent on getting acquainted with the system, as well as mounds of paperwork. Delicious paperwork.
I still haven’t fully unpacked. Too much space equals not enough limits on where the furniture can go. Still have little corners of the apartments that I must clean partially due to my OCD-ness.
What else is on my mind…
After 1.1.1, my iPhone is much more unstable than before. I don’t get it. I’ve had it “crash” on me a couple times after the update, quitting out to the home screen from whatever I was doing. I’ve had it get really hot which I can only blame it still looking for a wifi source that didn’t exist (it didn’t disconnect properly or something). I hope it was just a bad string of errors.
Still looking for a new set of headphones and a lighter mp3 player to run/work out with. The iPod shuffle seems kinda expensive for what I want to do… but we’ll see…
Lots of electronic purchases, hopefully, in the future. Lots to do in this upcoming month… I feel like I’m back to some semblance of sanity. I’ll be back to doing my Month in Reviews, and continuing to blog personal as well as technical.
Mind ready. Goals set. Headfirst go.
What's Up, JK?
For those who want the facts, quick and to the point:
- I have given my two weeks notice at MoCo, Inc here in Minneapolis, MN.
- I have a job as a Research Programmer at NCSA, in Urbana, Illinois.
- Putting two and two together, you get four. Also, a lovely return trip to Champaign in two weeks.
- Looking for housing until I find an apartment… anyone? I’ll… do some stuff for you… Cook/clean? Large wads of cash?
- I hope to squeeze in a visit to Cincinnati before starting work, to visit family and friends, as well as pick up more of my junk. (Books, books, and more books.)
- There is no strict date as to when I start the Research Programmer position.
- I have bought the iPhone, after the price cut of the year. It’s definitely the best gadget-y device I’ve ever owned. It’s got it’s problems though.
- Starting next month, the monthly reviews will return. I’m pretty sure things will finally become more settled down.
- I’m suffering from pain in my left wrist. I have a feeling it’s carpal tunnel. Will need to find a doctor soon… but insurance doesn’t kick it until… I start the new job. Wee.
- The reason for the “Crap crap crap crap” post was definitely due to the job situation. Hopefully that clears up a few things.
Quickie on the iPhone
As expected, most of this weekend was spent on tweaking and messing around with the iPhone. Definitely a treat for the UI-inclined nerd I am.
- I love how the phone vibrates/makes a sound when I get any email or text. It’s another way of being notified. Growl is good, but this is much sleeker; having a physical feedback. Now if someone could hack it to display some other data while it’s plugged in, like a dashboard of sorts for everything, rather than having to click on things: A quick summary of everything you need to know.
- I love having a third screen now that occupies my desk. The screen usage varies from having my email up to listening to music.
- I don’t like the UI inconsistencies that are all over the place. Oh, it’s much much more put together than any cellphones out there, but for a phone that’s been dubbed the “JesusPhone”, I expected more. But alas, human engineering can only go so far… I’ll probably write more on this as things annoy the crap out of me more and more.
- Every time I see this phone, I feel like it’s getting smaller and smaller. I’m not sure why. It’s the darn designers at Apple… they somehow made the thing seem feel smaller with each use. It seems that the iPhone got a bit of the Reality Distortion Field from Jobs.
- The phone portion of the iPhone is great. Calls are clear, and I get more bars than my Samsung phone from where I live. No more running outside for phone calls.
Must Resist… iPhone
For those just tuning in, here’s the skinny:
- Trying to find an apartment, searching for a motel, navigating around the city, trying to keep up with my feeds and blog updates…
- All would be amazingly easy with a revolutionary Internet communication device. And a phone that isn’t a little broken.
- I’m not in Cincinnati, OH. Nor am I in Champaign-Urbana, IL. Nor in Madison, WI. I was in all of those places… Nor the Valley. I am, indeed, in Minneapolis, MN.
- I start work on Monday with MoCo.
Thankfully, Minneapolis is working on a city wide Wi-Fi program. (I think it helped during the bridge collapse: Wi-Fi network eases rescue operations I gave them $10 for me to enjoy the sweet sweet tubes for the next 24 hours. Libraries are good, too, for the tubes.
I guess this is all you’re going to get for a little bit. I was so dead tired yesterday, I think I went to bed at 10 and woke up at 7. But definitely well rested.
Might have to write the N00b’s guide to Minneapolis…
Just as I thought: 3rd Party Apps… er… Web Apps on iPhone
When I thought about 3rd party applications for the iPhone, I didn’t think that it would require me to learn Cocoa.
I thought… why not web applications? Heck, it’s got a browser built in.
I’m happier now that Jobs has come out and said it. Although, for some, this might seem like a copout solution. However, I’m happy that things are, once again, moving towards the web.
The only thing missing is somehow using the power of the multi-touch screen… That sucker seems locked down… Maybe somehow somebody somewhere could hack that.
And here comes the feeds about today’s Stevenote… ugh.
Oh my goodness, apple.com looks more lickable…
Oh, and go download the Safari Beta. Because… my love for Firefox is dwindling… and I’m trying to kill my dependence on interface add-ons. More on that, later.
Couple of cool commentaries
- iPhone SDK: It’s called Safari: 37signals.
- One More Browser: Shaun Inman.
Apple's Taking a Beating on the Markets…
Apple released a statement on the 12th (and in a few weeks, this is going to be the wrong link), with my commentary, as much as I can remember having on that day:
iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is.
Yes, Mr. Jobs. We want to give you money! We knew June. Of course, a nice rebate would be good.
[Sidenote: By the way, I'm most likely not going to get one. Why? Two reasons: Programmability and Power.]
However,
I don’t likes the looks of thissss.
iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned.
“We screwed up. But you still love us, right?”
Of course, Mr. Jobs. We love you. Here, have some more money. When’s Leopard coming out so I know to save up my $150?
While Leopard’s features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October.
October? Wasn’t the original date Spring 2007? What, is Apple pulling a Vista?
We think it will be well worth the wait. Life often presents tradeoffs, and in this case we’re sure we’ve made the right ones. [Apr 12, 2007]
But of course, had I known this announcement would be made the day after I started my IRA Roth… if I knew about Leopard missing the already pushed back deadline… if I knew the market would look like this for the week to follow:
Blah.
This post made by an ex-Apple employee definitely sums up the possible reason as to why… things are becoming shaky, just a tiny bit.
Three Hypotheses on User Interface Design
If you don’t know who the author if this article is, it’s okay. Just know that this man is behind everything to see here. Yeah, it’s the guy that has a CSS hack named after him… You know someone’s important when you’ve got that happening for you. Now, let me continue to the point of the post.
Three Hypotheses of Human Interface Design
Hypothesis 1: Human interface cognitive load is proportional to the number of clicks/keystrokes/gestures
For me, this hypothesis comes to life through the wonders of Quicksilver and keyboard shortcut. With Quicksilver, my fingers have less reason to leave the keyboard. Maybe one day… we’ll have bitmapped keyboards (iPhone, anybody?)
Hypothesis 2: Human interface cognitive load is inversely proportional to interface latency
In other words: Make the user feel smarter than the computer at all times. Sure, the computer is able to calculate much much better and faster than the average human being… but what it comes down to is making the user feel like he’s in control. Regardless of how fast he can type or not type, the user shouldn’t be the one that’s waiting: The computer should be the servant to the master user, never EVER the other way around.
I hate you, beachballs and hourglasses.
Hypothesis 3: The usability of an interface is inversely geometrically proportional to its cognitive load
The better the interface, the easier it’ll be to use, and people will want to use it. It’s as if the system is calling out to the user, “Use me, and feel better about yourself.”
This is the case with me and Apple products: I want to not only use them, I want to lick them.
Conclusions
What does this all mean?
When designing human computer interfaces (including web UIs):
- Minimize the number of text fields in your interfaces down to the absolute minimum necessary.
- Minimize the number of click/keystrokes/gestures necessary to accomplish actions in your interface.
- Make your interface as responsive as possible – minimize the latency of each and every action a user might take in your interface.
And be prepared for both lots of users, and frequent users.
I’m going to take these points to heart in designing my next web application’s interface. I want things to be customizable, but at the same time, I don’t want to impede the user at all in his or her quest to achieve UI heaven.
Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
iPhone, the NON-Review
Here comes the iPhone entry I’ve been waiting to post… since it was introduced just short of a week ago.
Let’s start with the rumors. Oh man, there were so MANY rumors… my RSS feed reader was burning UP with iPhone rumors, as well as reaction pieces after the iPhone was introduced. I got sick and tired of it. Yes, I enjoyed refreshing and reloading two separate coverage (engadget and macrumors) of Macworld San Francisco. Yes, I enjoyed watching the iPhone keynote the second it was available. Yes, I enjoyed memorizing all the stats available from the Apple website (I realized a couple days later that there was an iPhone tab added to the top navigation…). Yes, I enjoyed reading Mr. Pogue’s Ultimate Q&A, both Part 1 and Part 2. Yes, I enjoyed reading like the bazillion other pages that had talked about this thing… (I really really liked 37signals article… which makes me wonder why I didn’t write up a piece like that…).
Here’s was my rule to sifting through the garbage and the awesome articles: If the reviewer touched the iPhone, I would read it. If the reviewer didn’t, then I would delete it immediately and move on to the next article in my feed reader, which was most likely yet another iPhone article. Sometimes, I’d have to undo, because while the writer might not have touched the iPhone, he or she had some amazing insight on the devices (like the 37signals post).
Instead of trying to “review” the gadget that I’ve never touched, I’m only going to talk about how it might impact my life in six months. That’s all I want to do.
I’m going to assume for the rest of this article that you know everything there is to know about the iPhone, except for not knowing how it feels… or smells… or tastes… yum… iPhone… I’m just going to start hammering out points I thought are relevant to me… and those that might be reading it.
As I’ve said before… if this devices delivers on the functionality… I’ll be very amazed. I’m a very picky person when it comes to gadgets, but I’ve learned to just deal with minor nuisances here and there. I’ve wanted something like this ever since I had a cellphone. I looked up into the stars and asked, “Where is my all-in-one? WHERE?”. I think it might be here… and no, not like how Brent is calling it the second coming. (But I think it’s hilarious…)
I don’t have to carry my phone and iPod anymore. I already killed my digital camera because I wanted to be ready for the next generation of phones that will have 2 Megapixel cameras… (don’t need any more megapixels than that for me, but I do need better frame rates if I want to take video clips) Not only would the iPhone lessen the number of gadgets I need to carry, it also cuts down on cables I need to carry around with me. (But why isn’t iPhone using the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi to transfer data from a computer? This doesn’t worry me though… because this is an obvious next step to improving the iPhone) However, that battery life is not pretty. 5 hours of talk time/video/everything else isn’t pretty.
The interface will be killer. It has to be. If not, I’m not buying into it. Take, for example, my phone: Samsung d807. I was told that it plays mp3s… but man, that is not an interface worth saving. However, I’m just used to the crappy way we deal with contact information, and so I was fine with the phone as a cellular device. But now that Apple has swooped in and changed that intangible “nice”-ness of making phone calls… Okay, once again, this depends on how the iPhone is when I play with it. I better be just as surprised as I was when I got my first mac. After all… it does have Mac (EDIT: Correction by Raj, through Alex… Jobs never said Mac…) OS X (Or so they say… it’s supposed to be a whittled down half a GB version of it… and I really hope it doesn’t eat into the 4/8 GB the iPhone is supposed to come with.)
And it’s not just the gadget you’re buying into. Just like when you buy a mac, you’re buying into a way of life. From the interface down to the physical 30-pin connector that it uses, you’re buying into a community… an ecosystem. No, I’m not trying to hype anything up, but with anything Apple, you get something much more than the product. If you have a mac (the 5.7% of us) or even an iPod, you know what that is. If you don’t (yet), you’ll find out soon enough.
So for all of you that know me as the Apple fanatic, here’s my answer to your question “Will I buy it?”.
I’ll buy it… only if I get to play with it first. I don’t think I will be torn over whether or not if I should buy it. If it’s worth it, I’m getting it. If it’s not, I can live without it.
Ah, so you people are talking about the extra costs (AKA data plans…) Yes… and this troubles me too. If 3rd parties could develop on this platform… we’d easily have VoIP happiness wherever there was WiFi, and we’d never have to use our minutes at our homes. I could even start programming applications using the user interface… But really, if Cingular doesn’t change the data plans for this gadget… I’m definitely NOT going to buy this thing. There is no way Cingular is going to charge me per KB to use this.
This should go into another rant about how we shouldn’t be charing per minutes or per text message to phone companies, but that’ll be for another day.
I have a feeling Apple is definitely going to change the wireless industry, just like it changed the music one. I don’t know if it’ll be a runaway success like the iPod, but it’ll leave it’s mark in history. Hey, it can’t be as bad as the Newton…
I think this pretty much summarizes my views on the iPhone. Do whatever you want with it. Delete it, quick!
Apple Has Suprised Me Yet Again…
EDIT: Basically,
Wi-Fi: YES Bluetooth: YES Camera: 2 MP Size: 4/8 GB Battery Life: 5 Hours talk/video/browsing, 16 hours for just audio Price: $499 – 4 GB, $599 – 8 GB, with 2 year contract… Availability: Shipping JUNE
Time to start saving.
This device… is almost exactly what I’ve been dreaming about since the first day I had a phone. I was never happy with the phones I’ve had. They’ve always the user interface I was looking for. Even my newest phone, the d807… I was happy with the slider functionality, but the headset volume is quite low. The camera is 1.3 MP, but I keep getting blurry pictures… And man… don’t get me started with music. I always wondered when the heck we would get something that brought together listening to music, watching clips, making calls, sending emails, using the Internet, chatting online, taking pictures… blah blah blah. A do-it-all gadget.
I’ve bought all sorts of gadgets to try and have this happen. I tried to make my iPod into a PDA… I’ve tried making a PDA (my first compaq, then the iPaq, then the Toshiba…) into a music player… I’ve tried making my first MP3 player (what was it called… it used Iomega’s Clik 40 MB disks…) into something more than something that plays music.
And I’ve failed at every step of the way. This is because I’ve only know how to deal with the software that I could mess around with. I could try and hack it… but man, if only there was the hardware to do what I wanted to do.
Then Apple shows up in my life… and now… the iPhone.
Wi-Fi. Bluetooth 2.0. Freaking mini-OS X running on the thing. Not to mention… an extremely improved user interface to deal with phone calls and voice mails. Oh, and a 2 MP camera… and I’m sure it’s built solid. And all the prettiness… three extra sensors to make everyone happy.