Curious Rat - An Observation
A quote from the post:
You can preach all you want about rooting your phone and hacking your tablet to do inane things, like control your refrigerator light, but my family was actually getting things done within 30 minutes of opening and activating their new computers - yes, computers.
Ease of use and seamlessness are some of the things that convince many people of Apple’s products in my opinion.
I had a similar experience with my parents lately: I gave them my MacBook Pro, pre-loaded with OS X Lion, MS Office, the current iLife apps and a few other nifty things that I knew they’re going to use.
After about an hour of showing them around the OS and a few apps, my mother was hooked. Guess by which features?
Mission control and full screen apps, gestures and auto saving.
As long as the innards of OS X are somehow accessible to those who want or need to work with them, Apple can iOS-ify the system as much as they want, if it makes full-blown computers easier to use for normal people.
How many times have you been to a product website and seen big bold letters proclaiming that you can CONNECT and ENGAGE and DISCOVER? Every time I see that, I hit the back button, and I bet you do too.
It’s because it’s vague. It’s supposed to sound exciting, but it’s not. It doesn’t say anything about what you can really do with the app.
Nobody wants to connect or discover.
Brent Simmons on Twitter’s new nomenclature. Spot-on.
I absolutely agree with Brent Simmons’s statement. Having read the articles by Cody Fink and John Gruber, I believe that—at least for me—Twitter’s apps (including the web app) have finally jumped the shark.
The new Twitter iPhone app seems to be aimed at new users and “casual users”. Now, why did I use this word, almost devoid of meaning, “casual users”?
I don’t think “casual users” are those who sometimes check Twitter to see what’s up; from personal experience those users are more likely to interact with a small amount of friends/other users, meaning that the most important features of Twitter are the timeline, conversations and direct messages. DMs, for one, are hidden in the last tab of the app. From Gruber’s article:
“Me”. Oh boy. Stashed into this tab are your profile, your direct messages, your Twitter Lists, and the interface for switching to other Twitter accounts. This tab is the conceptual carpet under which Twitter swept everything that didn’t fit under “Home”, “Connect”, or “Discover”.
And that’s exactly what happened.
As I see it, Twitter is trying to hone-in on new users and what it thinks are “casual users”; users who sometimes check Twitter to stay up to date on the latest happenings, trends and product offers and interact publicly with their friends and acquaintances.
Again, Gruber:
Presumably, this Discover tab is the successor to the late and unlamented dickbar — where sponsors will be able to pay Twitter to promote products and services.
Yup. Combine that with what Fink found out about this tab:
Discover is supposed to get better over time. Depending on where you’re located, who you follow, or what topics you find interest in, Discover aims to offer suggestions around those things.
Until now Twitter’s applications allowed the users to make use of the service according to his/her needs, even the web app. Now Twitter is trying to steer users in a direction.
For me this direction is called “We finally need a way to monetize this service.”, which Twitter perfectly entitled to do.
Unfortunately that means many users will now (have to) steer clear of Twitter’s applications. Thankfully there are alternatives; Twitterrific and Twittelator Neue cater to what I think are causal users; as they integrate DMs and @-replys and photos nicely into the timeline and create a seamless experience.
On the other end of the spectrum there’s Echofon and Tweetbot; two clients help the user make the most of almost everything Twitter has to offer and give him/her quick access to almost any kind of information.
I have found what I was looking for in Tweetbot. Tweetie and Tweetie 2.0 even more so, were the evolution of Twitter on the iPhone; the first clients that were more powerful than the website. Everything Twitter did to it after buying it, was adding features and altering it. Tweetbot has everything I loved in Tweetie 2.0, but with even more useful features, all packaged in a design that makes everything very accessible and a pleasure to use.
First impressions: Infinity Blade 2
Yesterday the sequel to ‘Infinity Blade’ by Epic Games was released. The initial reviews on gaming centric websites were almost unanimously positive.
I downloaded the game this morning and took a few minutes to check it out.
What I saw was impressive to say the least:
- Incredible graphics, diverse, changing environments and cutscenes
- Gone is the tedious repetitiveness of the first title
- New enemies with new moves and attacks, old enemies with a few new tricks up their sleeves
- Improved sound effects, voice overs and music
- New upgrade system for your inventory and a sleuth of new items
There are a few bugs, mostly small graphics glitches, imperfect localisation (I also couldn’t find a way to set the subtitles from German to English) and it’s still annoying to see advertisements for game-related things left, front and centre. I didn’t have any crashes so far, which wasn’t the case for the first one, and I’ve noticed that the game manages to get my iPhone 4S pretty warm.
I can’t wait to spend more time with this game. Go get it.
the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a Sad History of Support
[Schandroidfreude]
Oh my! How bad iOS users have it in their closed environment. So so bad.[/Schandroidfreude]
(via Instapaper)
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:
…
Comprehensive post on how to improve the “back” buttons that exist in almost every iOS application. Worth a read.
Jason Snell’s review of the HP TouchPad
Best review of HP’s competitor to the iPad out there.
I’m routing for the TouchPad and the things that will follow it, because from what I have seen, webOS is the most promising alternative to iOS out there.
I’ve been using Palm devices for years, even programmed for the platform for a short time and I would love to see them succeed.
(via Instapaper)
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.
Angry Birds influence: daughter now uses expression “killing two pigs with one bird
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.
FOSS Patents: Two more lawsuits against Lodsys
Great reporting by Florian Müller on the ongoing Lodsys-Patent-Trolling-Case.
This is my favourite part of the post:
OpinionLab is the first company to sue Lodsys not only under patent law but to additionally make demands under rules against unfair competition and tortious interference.
Those additional allegations are tough, and beyond a merely declaratory judgment, OpinionLab seeks injunctive and monetary relief. In other words, they bring claims that pose a significant economic risk to Lodsys.
I’m looking forward to see this patent troll have his ass handed to him.
(via Instapaper)
Macgasm: Carriers had no idea iMessages was coming, nor should they have
I completely agree with Joshua Schnell.
I despise SMS, because they are limited, unreliable and ridiculously expensive for customers, while they cost the carriers close to nothing.
I don’t mean to tell carriers what they should be allowed to charge for, but they shouldn’t be surprised when a company comes along, offering their customers a cheaper solution.
As of now iMessages only work between iOS users, which means that messages to users of any other mobile OS will still be set as SMS, but it’s a great first step.
LCARS Lock & Home Wallpapers by Gedeon Maheux
I’m a huge Star Trek fan and this was an instantaneous download.
