My iPhone Software Wishlist (SDK)

Everyone has their list; here’s mine:

• Multi-protocol Chat Client. Hell, if I had my way, Adium would be ported ASAP!
• SSH terminal with bookmark support.
• Real Address Book – not a section of the phone.

I guess my earlier suggestions and wish list still apply as well, but those need to come from Apple.

Anatomy of a Twitter Replacement

Twitter seems to be all-the-rage in the tech circles these days. When I was trying to find an easy way for Monica and me to update Katie Lynn’s website, I decided to give Twitter a try. It worked well usually, but I noticed the external javascript calls slowed down page load time dramatically. Additionally, customization ability is lacking. I loved being able to send a text message to update the site, but I wanted the ability to email updates as well.

So I set out to find a replacement. I thought that would be simple.

Boy was I wrong.

I searched for a long time and finally found some very basic framework. Luckily, I’m not too shabby with PHP and was able to write everything I wanted:

• Accept text messages, emails, and web submissions.
• Parse the text message/email into variables.
• Insert the variables into a MySQL database.
• Display records any way I want.
• Allow people to subscribe to receive an email upon a new update.
• Load fast!

I then wrote an extremely easy admin interface to be able to edit the entries.

There are five main files to the application:

• Parser – as the name indicates, it parses the text and email submissions.
• Admin – all admin functions including posting via web.
• Notifier – emails subscribers upon all new updates.
• Subscribe – as indicated, performs the subscription action as requested by the visitor.
• Unsubscribe – as indicated, unsubscribes a subscriber upon their request.

The beauty of my system is that it does not need a cronjob. Instead, I simply piped an email address to the parser script’s full path.

And voilà!

I have a nice, simple Twitter replacement.

How Did Google Do?

I recently contacted Google for assistance with a problem on Google Apps. I received the following email this evening:

How did you do? Fairly well on the support, but horrible on the follow-up email!

To Be Mad or Not To Be Mad

Apple lowered the price of the 8GB iPhone to $399 today. And early adopters are mad to say the least.

As a relatively early adopter myself, I thought long and hard about it. Am I mad? Not really.

Why?

• My iPhone was worth the $599 then; it’s worth the $599 now.
• I have used my iPhone a lot over the past two months; more than I ever used my previous phone.

That being said, I think Apple made a rather large mistake by lowering the price. In addition to lowering the price of the 8GB model, Apple also discontinued the 4GB model. I feel this was a poor business decision because:

• Apple just upset many (most?) early adopters of the iPhone. And who are the majority of the early adopters? Your typical Apple supporters and “fan boys”.
• Apple just upset the 4GB iPhone owners. With the new 8GB model price, they could have spent less money and gotten more storage.

Although $200 is $200, I’m still extremely pleased with my iPhone and not really upset about the price drop.

Leopard Screenshots

New Leopard screenshots have been posted by ThinkSecret. I can’t wait until its release in October.

Redemption.. I Was Wrong!

In my earlier entry concerning my switch to Apple Mail, I stated that Apple Mail had sub-par IMAP support. When I wrote this, I was under the impression that it was not possible to have separate Sent/Drafts/Junk/Trash folders (mailboxes as Apple Mail calls them) for your different IMAP accounts.

I was wrong!

Apple Mail and the IMAP accounts simply have to be configured for it.

• Make sure all IMAP accounts are configured to store the messages on the server.
• In the correct folder tree for each IMAP account, select the folder you wish to use for Sent email and go to the Mailbox menu >> Use This Mailbox For >> Sent. Do this for Drafts, Junk, and Trash for each IMAP account.

And voilà! You now have separate special folders for each IMAP account.

Apple Mail has the ‘combined’ mailbox interface, and it does take some getting used to. But so far, I don’t have a complaint about it.

My Own Personal Browser War

My name is Tom and I have a problem.

No, this isn’t an AA meeting. My problem is deciding what browser to use on my PowerBook. My choices:

• Safari
• Firefox
• Camino
• Flock

Each have their advantages and disadvantages. Here are my opinions/observations:

• Firefox is slow compared to Safari and Camino. Additionally, it’s painfully slow compared to the Windows version of Firefox.
• Camino has the Mac feel to it but doesn’t support Firefox extensions.
• Safari has the Apple name and Mac feel to it but doesn’t support Firefox extensions naturally.
• Safari and Camino are both very fast.
• WordPress’s visual text editor (TinyMCE) doesn’t work in Safari. I use WordPress on many sites, so this is a huge loss.
• Flock is rather new on the scene and built off of the Gecko rendering engine (Firefox) but doesn’t fully support all Firefox extensions.
• Flock still seems bloated and very beta.
• Safari’s bookmarks sync with my iPhone.
• Safari has a weird cookie issue with Microsoft Outlook Web Access that’s quite annoying.

So my question to my three readers: What browser would you suggest I use?

Bluetooth Schmutooth

There’s no mistake that I’m a self-proclaimed gadgeteer. A popular trend these days are the bluetooth headsets that allow you to have a conversation on your mobile phone wirelessly. For the most part, these headsets are a great idea.

For the most part.

I am a proponent for banning mobile phone calls while driving if not using a hands-free adapter. Mobile phones are quickly becoming the number one distraction while driving, and these bluetooth headsets can help combat that.

However, if you’re shopping at Target, take the damn headset off. You look like a fool walking around with this stupid little piece of plastic hanging over your ear. No one is important enough to necessitate wearing a headset in a store – with the exception of the Secret Service naturally. If you get a call, take your lazy ass hand out of your pocket and hold your phone up to your ear.

Which leads me to my next rant..

If you’re in a store checkout line, get off the damn phone. The checkout employee is due the respect of not overhearing your unimportant conversation. The employee is there to serve you; have the decency of allowing them to do that properly. The same goes for drive-thrus, restaurants, and any other similar situation.

Whew.. I feel better now.