DC Comics: No Flash on Flickr.
DC Comics might still require Flash on my Mac in order for me to view the comics I bought and the joke might even be an obvious one, but I still find this splash page funny. It’s definitely better than a standard little blue LEGO brick.
Neven Mrgan's tumbl: Labeling the Back button
Most “deep” apps require some amount of navigation, moving the user deeper into child views and then back out to the parent view. That navigational backtracking is typically done with a “Back” button, positioned in the top-left corner, and denoted by a pointed left side. You’ve all seen it:
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Comprehensive post on how to improve the “back” buttons that exist in almost every iOS application. Worth a read.
CBS releases "Star Trek PADD" application
The application provides access to the StarTrek.com database using an authentic LCARS interface.
I’ve been wanting something like this ever since the iPad was introduced.
CBS needs to make more Star Trek themed applications for iOS, especially more games. There are tons of old, glorious games that could be ported to the iPad; “Starfleet Academy” comes to mind.
Imagine flying the old Enterprise into battle again a few D7 cruisers, using the iPads motion controls.
Thanks to Peter Cohen at The Loop for the link.
Shout-out: "Pleco" Chinese Dictionary for iOS
A quick shout-out to the makers of one of my favourite applications for the iPhone and iPad.
I’m approaching the end of my time in university, studying Sinology and Business and this application has been of great help along the way.
Anybody who needs a reliable Chinese-English (English-Chinese) dictionary should try Pleco. It’s a universal application with tons of useful features in a well thought-out user interface. The entire application is modular, so you can add features to perfectly suit your needs. Their forums provide great support for anything Pleco-related and the staff is always open for suggestions and feature requests.
Some of my favourite features are:
- A highly customisable flashcard system.
- Live-OCR (Optical Character Recognition) for Chinese characters.
- Full-screen handwriting recognition.
- Stroke order diagrams (especially useful for long form characters).
- And last but not least: Amazing dictionaries, some of which aren’t available in digital for anywhere else.
The last thing I want to mention is, that they offer substantial student discounts.
4th of July app discounts incoming
It looks like Gameloft has kicked-off the application discount extravaganza for the upcoming holiday in the U.S.
Many great titles are discounted, among them “N.O.V.A 2” and “N.O.V.A. 2 HD”.
If you’re a gaming nut and app addict like myself, I’d subscribe to sites like Toucharcade and 148apps.com for the next couple of days, if you haven’t already done so.
iOS applications I use
This is a great little application to list publicise either all your iOS apps or a selection.
In my case I’ve listed only my favourite or most frequently used apps.
Optimised “liking Tumblr posts” workflow in Reeder for Mac
Reeder for Mac makes it easy to quickly “like” (or “heart”) Tumblr posts on subscribed blogs:
While viewing an article, open the Tumblr page by either pressing ’v’ on the keyboard, clicking the title of the article, or performing a three finger swipe to the right on a multitouch trackpad.
Clicking the heart icon on a tumblr post will “like” the post, close the website and bring you back to the article view in Reeder.
Extensive comparison of iPhone notes applications
Should you be planning to buy a notes application for the iPhone (or iPad), but unsure which ones have any merit, I highly recommend reading the linked blog post.
It’s a comprehensive review of four better than average note taking applications on the App Store.
I personally own Simplenote, Elements and Plain Text, of which my favourite is Simplenote. I synchronise it via Simplenote’s service and Notational Velocity on my Mac.
Reading this review, brought a few features of Simplenote to my attention that I didn’t know about, but which will come in extremely handy.
Readability’s new service
I’ve always been a huge fan of Arc90’s Readability bookmarklet, which performs an article-text parse of any web page and displays the results in a highly readable, adjustable format. (It’s like Instapaper’s text view, but nicer and applied in place, instantly, to the web page you’re viewing.)
Today, they launched an entirely new Readability service: you pay a small fee each month, and they give most of the proceeds to the authors of the pages you choose (by using the Readability bookmarklet on them, or adding them in other ways). It’s a great way for readers to support web publishers, big and small, directly and automatically.
I’m working with Readability in three main ways:
- Instapaper will soon provide an option to send logs of your reading activity to your Readability account if you have one, so pages you read in Instapaper will give “credit” to the publishers.
- I’ve created a special Readability edition of the Instapaper iPhone and iPad app to serve as Readability’s official mobile app, due out in the near future.
- I’m an advisor to the company.
Trust me, these guys really know their stuff, and their heads are in the right place: there are no sinister motives or shady practices. It works exactly the way you’d expect, and is one of the most positive, constructive efforts I’ve seen in the online publishing world in a long time.
I’m honored to be a part of it, and I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.
I like this idea for a few reasons:
- You pay what you want. Of whatever you are willing to spend each month, writers get 70%.
- You’re billed through Amazon Payments. If you already have an account with Amazon, you don’t have to give your credentials to yet another company.
- You can cancel any time you want.
I’m practically married to my Instapaper account; I cherish the evenings when I can sit down and go through my Instapaper cue one by one.
The ability to easily reward the authors whose work I enjoy so much, is something I’ve been waiting for a long time.
I hope this catches-on quickly.
Easily check for App Store updates in iTunes
Instead of mousing to the ‘Check For Updates’ text button at the bottom of the Apps section of iTunes 10, you can simply hit ⌘-R to run the check.
Strangely, I cannot find this command anywhere iTunes’ menu system besides the main app menu, but that’s for checking on iTunes updates, not app updates. Plus, ⌘-R is set for the Store > Reload Page command, but then, only when you’re in the store; it’s grayed out when viewing your apps.
The times I had to manually hit the refresh button!
Great tip.
