Optimality!

On Imgriff.com I read about a truly interesting website, solely dedicated to the Optimality of packing lightly for travel: http://www.onebag.com Continue Reading »

This post is really just an edited summary of instructions found elsewhere. I used instructions from two sources (here incl. comments, and here), the first of which is slightly outdated and incomplete. Here’s the full story: Continue Reading »

Tags: Apple, iBook, Mac, Mac OS X Platform, PowerBook, PowerPC, Xcode

Especially the last part about fill words such as ‘um’ and other linguistic slips is interesting and fun. Listen to it here.

Excerpt form an Ars Technica Article on the Windows 7 UI:

An icon on the taskbar doesn’t necessarily mean that a program is running; programs can be pinned to the taskbar so that their icon is persistent. Clicking the icon starts the program (if it’s not running) or switches to it (if it is).

…featured since March 2001 in Mac OS X as presented in this Ars Technica Article: Direct Link.

Apparently Apple finally listened to the many users requesting direct FTP support. Quote:

Rather use File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to publish to a different hosting service? With the built-in FTP support in iWeb, you can do that, too.

I am curious to see if this works as seamlessly as syncing via .Mac or MobileMe…

I was very excited that google street view was announced the same time I bought my iPhone, alas I could not figure out how to use it.

Apple’s or Google’s websites offered no help, so it took some google searches to reveal how to do this (comment 3 here).

Basically, you have to drop a pin and tap it. If street view is available at that location, there will be a small red circle with a white person on the left hand side of the pin’s label. This also works with pins from search results.

Tap that icon and the screen will rotate into street view. A small circle indicates the street location and cone of view. It doubles as the exit from street view, which is cute, but not very intuitive.

Unfortunately, there appears to be no way of knowing where street view is available as there is in google maps on a computer. All you can do is drop a pin, tap it, and see if street view is offered. This can be misleading if you are at the border of a street view covered area, where just a small distance over it may or may not work.

Tags: Google, iPhone, street view

I have had my iPhone for nearly a month now and absolutely love almost everything about it – the great exception being the iPod.

Having been a 1st Gen iPod Nano user for three years, I surely was expecting the iPhone to support folders for my playlists. I still remember my excitement when iTunes started supporting folders, yet to this day no iPod supports them.

What is the point of creating an intricate folder structure for my classical music if that means that I end up with 20 playlists on my iPod/iPhone all called “Symphony No. 1″?

To make matters worse, there is no easy way to scroll to a particular playlist via a quick-jump alphabet on the right hand side. No, you have to flick through dozens and dozens of screens to get to the bottom playlists. The same applies to genres.

Why can’t we get a consistent UI with alphabet quick access for all lists? Why can’t we get folders, at least as an option for those people who care. I always thought of the iPhone more of being a computer than an iPod. In that case, folders should be standard.

Because I don’t have time to rename hundreds of playlists (nor do i feel like adding redundant information) I will probably continue listening to Pandora most of the time. This is a shame because I bought the 16 gig model with the iPod in mind, and in hindsight I may not be needing all this memory.

Tags: consistency, gui, iPhone, ipod, usability