I made it into Google+…first impressions

Today I finally got into Google+ after trying to catch the invite windows. I’d been sitting on 2 invites since day one, but never managed to hit registration when it was unlocked. Today that all changed, and now I get to experience what other techies have been on about.

My first impressions:

• UI – an emphatic +1. I’ve already changed my gmail theme to ‘Preview (dense)’ because I love the clean simplicity and minimalism; beyond that everything is beautiful and make excellent use of HTML5, CSS3, and all those other web goodies to provide a beautiful interface.
• UX – again, an emphatic +1. Here, I would have to use the word ‘graceful’ to describe their use of HTML5, CSS3, et al to provide an exceptional user experience. Nothing is in your face about its activity; but the more you look, the more you see.
• Circles – I like this implementation of what many are calling Facebook Groups. Other than the lovely way of implementing your groups, the UI provides for much better control and understanding of both your own Circles, as well as the Circles that you have been added to. +1 from me.
• Hangouts – the hangouts interface is smooth. An intuitive, clean interface that doesn’t beg for lots of assistance. It just gets down and does what it’s meant to do. I’ll have to wait til I’m at a real computer (with a web-cam), but then I’m all up for some serious testing of this.
• Chat – pretty much just the same as Gmail Chat from my first look. That said, gmail chat is a good IM client anyway, so all good.
• Photos – again, the interface is well implemented. I’ll need to have a decent play over the next few days, but I can’t say I expect to be disappointed at all.

It’s pretty obvious that the word-of-mouth surrounding Google+ and the features it is offering forced Facebook’s hand and made them bring forward the “awesome announcement” that they were integrating Skype into their framework. However, it already makes them look like they’re playing catch-up to Google+; as XYZ said the other day: “they aren’t the first to integrate video calling with social, MySpace did it in 2007, but now it’s the right timing for the product”. Google+ seems to have opened the gate first, if only by a couple of days. Facebook is already having to justify why their implementation is better (“most people only want to use person-to-person”).

The converse is also true though, as it seems Google+ is already fast-forwarding their Beta schedule and allowing more and more invites to be cashed in. This is possibly in response to Facebook’s moves; or, it could just be a response to public demand and the quality performance of Google+ internally for Google. They would much rather offer a schedule of months, and deliver in days or weeks, than the other way around. This is afterall the Google who still had gmail in beta 5 years after launch, but had been fully open to the public for 2 and 1/2 years of that 5 years (Wikipedia).

I’m going to be having a dive into the features as much as possible this weekend, I can’t wait. Here’s a vid:

my iPad app round-up

So, I’ve had my iPad for over a month now, and I felt it was time to review the apps I have on it now. I figure a month is enough time to settle into my usage patterns and have discarded apps that just didn’t do it for me afterall.

1: Social Networking –

I don’t run one app for all my social networking, some people prefer to but I have found it better to have apps that focus on one thing, and do what they do do well. For Twitter, I was originally using Twitterific, and had just upgraded to the paid version the day before Twitter released their own app. Since then I have been devoted to the official Twitter app which is clean, intuitive, and just pretty much perfect in my book.

For Facebook, I am still floating between two apps; Friendly and the official Facebook iPhone app. Both are pretty good, Friendly is more aesthetically pleasing due to being designed for the iPad form-factor, while the official FB app seems a little more intuitive and “like” Facebook itself (as you would expect).

I’m also running FourSquare on my iPad, as I don’t have an iPhone (still!!).

2: Utilities / Lifestyle -

I have quite a few utilities set up on my iPad, for news I am running the fantastic NYTimes app, the TVNZ News app, and the NZ Herald app. I also use GeekNews to pull all my geeky tech blogs together into one streamlined place. The Mashable! app is great for a quick check up on what is trending or popping up online currently.
I am currently using PrinterShare for printing directly from the iPad on my home network. This will hopefully change when iOS4 is released for iPad (rumors indicate late November 2010 maybe).
I also have Google Earth, the IMDb app, and a great tracking app – Parcel – which allows you to just put in your tracking code allocated to the delivery you are expecting. Saves having to visit different websites and remember your tracking numbers for different companies. Some other little gems are:
- Epicurious
- Wikipanion
- Evernote
- The WordPress app for blogging on the go
- Shazam
Then for a bit of creative fun, I have GrooveMaker and Drums! GrooveMaker lets you mix tracks, and even create your own tracks on the fly. Drums! is just that, a complete drum set on your iPad – in fact, it’s actually three complete drum sets, as you can choose between Standard, Groove, and Acoustic kits. The sound is true to life, so go get it.

3: Web Dev –

A few free web-dev helpers tucked on the iPad too. I’ve got JsAnywhere and three great apps from Interactive Blasphemy. JavaScript Anywhere is a JavaScript tool which enables you to edit your JS script, adjust the CSS, and then view the results in an HTML page. You can email the results to yourself. From Interactive Blasphemy I have robots.txt, which is just that, a robots.txt generator; Password, which generates passwords of random characters of length and complexity specified; and RGB/HSB/Hex, which enables you to create that perfect shade for you web job, and also then suggests good matching and contrasting colors.

4: Games -

Yep, the main reason most people have an iPad. I am personally a big fan of the logic/strategy games. I’ll list them all, then comment on a few of them, with more in-depth reviews being added, along with links to the iTunes store, later on:
- iFighter – essentially the classic fighter game 1945 remade for the iPad
- Harbor Master
- FlightControl HD
- Canabalt
- Gravity Hook
- Angry Birds
- Angry Birds (Halloween Special)
- Cut the Rope
- Pocket Frogs
- Plants vs Zombies
- Fruit Ninja HD
- Steve Young Football
- Build-A-Lot 2
- Blue Block
- Crazy Traffic: Crashed XL
- Train Conductor 2: U.S.A.
- No, Human
- Trainyard
- UFO On Tape
- Railway
- Chicktionary
- NOM
- Fish Eat Fish
- Dismount
- GearedHD
- Air Hockey
- TicTacDojo
- Little Metal Ball
- Soosiz HD
- Physics HD
- Gravity HD
- Tilt to Live HD
- NinJump
- Red Bull RC
- Asymmetry
- 8Bit Rebellion (the Linkin Park game)

Surprisingly enough, I have found my usage of the iPad to be alot different than I planned for. I have found the games an easy way to take a 5 minute break when I need to, but have found that I actually now tend to jump on Twitter or a news site when I want a 5 minute chill out. I am still just working with iBooks as my book-reader and PDF-reader of choice. Primarily because I have no need of the flasher features of the other readers out there. Overall, I have to say that the iPad is proving itself to be very worthwhile as a tool; and I keep finding new ways for it to excel and prove it’s worth.

easy links to iTunes content

Just a quick post to highlight the funky little tool on the iTunes website for automajickally [sic] generating links to specific apps with the iTunes store. The appropriately named iTunes Link Maker is able to be targeted by Country, Media Type, or Genre/Category; as well as being able to be searched by name.

It has been out for a while, and is not guaranteed by Apple at all. In fact, they go so far as to state

The Link Maker tool is provided by Apple as an accommodation only. Apple assumes no responsibility for your use of any links, and makes no representation regarding their accuracy or performance.

amongst other parts of the disclaimer. But, hey, it’s easier than trying to figure it out and do it yourself. Right??

Google working on Search As You Type

Google has been testing search results that will change in real time as you type into your Google Search box. When you start typing, the search box is moved to the top of the page and results are updated as you type, kind of like a Firefox page search, Spotlight on the Mac, or Windows 7’s “Search programs and files” field in the start menu.

These live search results are not available to the public at present as Google regularly tests new features with very small selections of users. Some of those features never see a public launch, but some do.

It is, honestly, anyone’s guess as to what the benefit of such results would be. The question that ultimately comes to mind, as noted by TechCrunch, is what effect this would have on keyword-based advertising. Given that the entire context of a word can change based on a few letters, it leads to an interesting outcome when your search changes that quickly; but, Google does make its money by displaying contextual ads based on your searches.

Blogger Rob Ousbey discovered the feature and wrote about it. Video follows.

 

(via Mashable)

Apple store outage

The Apple Store has been down for quite a few hours today/tonight. Twitter reports are just that it is down, with no actual reasons yet. All Apple is saying is what is on the site, which is just a “We’ll be back soon” logo. Apparently they’re updating the store, but it wouldn’t normally be expected to be done at such a peak usage time.

Being one week before the iPad release, we can only conjecture that they are reformatting the store for iPad apps and content. I’m not going to bother guessing, because we’ll all be able to see what is what very soon I’m sure.

the weekend has landed

I didn’t get to blogging yesterday, as I was working hard on assignments. You may have noticed the quick post I put up with some music and a video of it. Check it out if you get the chance, Bob Marley is awesome and the remake is brilliant. Just gets me all summery and wanting the sun and sand!! Back to today now, I had the dedication of some friends’ baby this morning, Annabelle is SOOOOO cute it’s ridiculous. Also bumped into some other old friends there whose baby was being dedicated in the same service. Great service, great people, and lots of cute babies. And then there was food afterward. I also started up a page on here linking to useful websites for coding, web-development, anything scripty as a kinda go-to page for quick reference. Hopefully it becomes useful for some of you. Check it out here.

In techy/g33ky/web land, the DDoS of Facebook and Twitter the other day is now being treated as an attack by Russian hackers, specifically targetting a 34-year-old economics lecturer and blogger who criticises Russia’s military presence in the Caucasus. Facebook and Twitter launched investigations yesterday, as a blogger called “Cyxymu” (a latinised version of Sukhumi, the capital of the Georgian breakaway republic, Abkhazia) announced he was the attack’s first target. Max Kelly, Facebook’s chief security officer, confirmed Cyxymu was the target.

Just checked my Twitter account and found that none of my text Tweets this evening from work have made it through. Thanks Vodafone, you’re awesome!!!!

Rumours are starting [via Engadget] that iTunes 9 will have BluRay support. As Engadget says

To be fair, the HD disc format wars are all but over at this point, and the most recent Final Cut Pro actually lets you burn video directly to a third-party BD drive, only to have to play the discs on another, non-Mac device. This is all pretty sketch at the moment, and we doubt the boys in Cupertino will be showing their hands until just after the eleventh hour — let’s not forget, also, that iTunes is also available for Windows which does have other third-party Blu-ray playback software.

So, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see now, won’t we??

Gizmodo is also showing off this 16GB USB, plus whatever microSD cards you shove inside. Kinda Osum!! [geekstuff4u via ohgizmo via gizmodo]

Into a night of playing with Microsoft Virtual PC and the WRK for Windows Server 2003 now. Ciao.

more comments on Apple, and other stuff

It’s out and about now that Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt, has resigned from Apple’s board. Regulators from the Federal Trade Commission had already been looking into whether Schmidt’s presence on the boards of Google and Apple was causing collusion that would diminish competition. I guess the actions of Apple against Google over the past week have shown this to not necessarily be the case! While a statement yesterday from el Jobbso himself indicated that it was the announcement of Chrome OS that triggered this,

Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple’s core businesses … Eric’s effectiveness as an Apple board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest

it is intriguing timing that the resignation comes so shortly after the Google Latitude and Google Voice debacle kicked off. Both parties would be well aware of the signals that would be sent to the world, regardless of PR statements to the contrary, and we know Google management is not impressed with Apple’s attaitude and handling of the situation from the tweet I mentioned last week. It’ll be interesting to see further developments here, as another Google director, Genentech Inc. Chairman Arthur Levinson, remains on Apple’s board. So we should be seeing him gone from one or the other companies soon, especially if the FCC has it’s way. Says Charles Elson, director of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Centre for Corporate Governance:

If it has been determined it’s a conflict for one director to serve on the boards of both companies, I would think it should be for the other, too. It’s impossible to be on the boards of two companies that are increasingly competing against each other.

Also, here’s copies of the letters sent by the FCC to Apple, Google and AT&T requesting detailed information regarding the lack of approval for Google’s Google Voice app, and the removal of previously approved Google Voice based apps from the Apple App Store [thanks TechCrunch]. Gizmodo is also reporting that the rapid response to the allegations of collusion and other general naughtiness is due to the new Chairman of the FCC, Julius Genachowski, who appears to be the driving force behind the agency’s quick response to the Apple-Google situation.

And, yes, it’s been done already, a nice developer man by the name of Nat Friedman has rocked out a script to enable iPhone users to utilise Google Latitude anyway; playnice is a sweet little script which gets your iPhone’s location from MobileMe, passes it to Latitude. It needs MobileMe to work, so you have to give el Jobbso some cash anyway, but it is a fix in the interim. I wonder if Apple is starting to get the hint yet, or if they even care. Methinks probably not. Also, having a look through Nat’s blog I came across these goodies (here and here). They’re from back in the middle of 2008, but are awesome for their concept and results. Nat set out to create and pull together the best one-line program that would fit inside Twitter’s 140-character buffer. Here’s a couple of my favourites, but check out the links to see the full extent of how cool this is.
This one decodes Morse Code:

m=etianmsurwdkgohvf?l?pjbxcyzq;p=0;while read -sn1 c;do [ -z "$c" ]&&p=0&&echo&&continue;let p+=c;echo -ne \\b${m:$p:1};let p+=p+2;done

Here’s an etch-a-sketch for your terminal! Use the 1 2 3 and 4 keys to move the cursor around the screen:

c=12322123;x=20;y=20;while read -sn1 p;do k=${c:(p-1)*2:2};let x+=$((k/10-2));let y+=$((k%10-2));echo -en \33[$y\;"$x"HX;done

And, here's a prime number generator in C:

main(x,y){for(;x++;) for(y=2;x%y;)printf( ++y/x+"%d\n",x);}

My next pick is that this app here for using iPhones as a payment portal by attaching a card-swipe dongle to the headphone jack will get approved, but then Apple will release their own version and pull the original as it "now duplicates features of the iPhone". Next I'm going to create an iPhone/iPod Touch application which cooks your battery and cause the said device to catch fire. I simply want to do this so I can get an email from Apple stating my rejection is for "duplicating already existing features of the device".

Joshua Topolsky from Engadget sums up the news around Apple and all their shenanigans on this report here.

In local news down here in New Zealand, we are finally starting to get some vaguely decent cellular servicing and pricing. Some of the charges we get here in New Zealand would cause people in the US, and even Australia, to have heart attacks. And the servicing and connectivity (or lack therof) is kinda ridiculous. Don't even get me started on our inability to get decent data plans. I actually nearly brought US international roaming plans into NZ with free BlackBerry Storms when they were being released, because the US deal gave UNLIMITED international data roaming for about US$50 (I can't remeber the exact figure). Anyway, it was cheaper to do that than to get dta from inside NZ. The stumbling block was not that this deal required 400+ connections (ie Business Plan) because we figured out how to do it through a "club" structure based in the US, but came up when we were not able to find a client useful way to block calls. Who wants a phone without calling ability?? And to leave calling ability in the plan would mean we became a cellular provider and had to chase call costs every month. Not entirely practical as a part-time lurk. The Skype calls route wasn't fully practical at the time either. Back to the point though, with the launch of a new cellular provider in New Zealand this week, 2degrees and their launch pricing plans here. They've halved the cost of texting, and of most calls, so this should hopefully cause Vodafone and Telecom to come to the party and start to be competitive and internationally realistic! I guess it remains to be seen what happens; the only hiccup I can currently see is that they are only offering "Pay-As-You-Go" servicing, which won't help them bring over bigger corporates easily (hopefully they've got this covered) and isn't the most attractive to me personally. I just like being able to pay once a month, as opposed to needing to remember to top up as I run low. Intriguingly, in Australia Woolworths supermarket chain has just announced they will be getting into the telecommunications market, offering a no-frills mobile phone service.

It's doing the rounds, but I thought I'd better share it too. Here's a video of how to NOT demolish a building. Turkish demolitions experts may not be so expert after-all.

I've also been polishing a few more tutorials, so I'l have them up tomorrow or Thursday, so stand-by for those. Also, if you're in the US, check out this competition here. 1800 Tequila are offering one lucky winner the chance to spend $10,000 creating their own "man cave"!!

WTF Apple??

So, following on from my post last week the Apple App Store rejection debacle continues unabated, not just the Google Voice rejections, but other apps too – again with no decent explanation or comment to the developer to allow them to “fix” their problematic app – and now Apple is expecting developers to reimburse customers directly out of their own pockets!! (links here, here, and here). It’s hard to know exactly what to say about this, as common sense does not seem to be a prevalent feature of the issue at present. Everyone except Apple seems to be attempting to bring common sense to the table, however it seems that Apple is desperate to avoid any semblance of the sort, or even to display an irrational logic. At least if they explained their actions and it made no sense, people could comprehend the illogic, but to stay so silent is just ludicrous. The feeling and comment floating around in the intrawebz is not positive towards this part of Apple’s product; and the comments are being actively made that this is a big enough issue to warrant reconsidering Apple products.

Really, I’m just going to add my voice to the masses and request that Apple open the App Store Rule Book and share with the world the dos and don’ts of iPhone App approval. No one is after “Apple secrets” (actually we all are), but it would be nice if people knew where the playing field was located; it would help everyone get on the same field as Apple, then maybe we could all play the same game. I have to quote this comment from a post elsewhere too:

I’d really like to see Google start an ad-campaign for Google Voice that shows all of it’s features and how awesome it is, then goes on to say that ‘there isn’t an app for that’ and to point everyone towards an android phone.
I would love to hear the call that apple would make to Google saying that they have to take down the commercial after they re-approve the app.

Where does this leave us?? I really don’t know yet. Everyone except Apple seems to have an opinion. I still think Apple produces fantastic products (which I still don’t own due to $$$) but their corporate culture seems to be becoming increasingly at odds with both consumer happiness and reality. The only tangible attitude they seem to be displaying is the fiscal chase, as the general perception is that apps are being rejected/removed to satisfy corporate partners (like AT&T); although, again, no one knows for sure.

I started to look at possible iPhone app development myself a while ago (and also BlackBerry too) which hasn’t progressed much as I look at more web app SAAS stuff, but I’m now a little scared. I’m a nobody, and if I invest my time and effort into something I need to be reasonably sure of a pay-off of some sort even if it is just success with a freebie app; that said I need a bit of security and guidance so as to be sure I am not wasting my time and energies (let alone money). As Kevin Duerr of Riverturn says:

We are interested in both the Android and WebOS (Pre) platforms. But at this moment, we have not made any final decisions at all, other than that it would be really hard to continue to invest our own dollars in the iPhone development program for our own apps. We think that we will continue to develop apps for our clients but will strongly caution them that they too could lose their investment if Apple ever decides to pull their app.

Realistically, no matter what Apple does or says at this point, a lot of customers, potential customers, iPhone app developers, and potential iPhone app developers are going to be pushed towards other platforms purely because nobody will ever fully trust Apple again. No one wants to invest in a dictatorship over which they have no control, or even knowledge of what the dictator will do or is doing!

In other stuff (news??), the video I posted here last Monday has really taken off as a viral hit with multiple copies being spawned on YouTube, and it being blogged and posted “everywhere”. It is an awesome, and original, wedding procession and I’m glad the couple in question have been able to share their fun with the world and have it received so well. It looks like they had an excellent day. [Update: it looks like Sony and Chris Brown actually got clever with this video, and instead of being all heavy-handed record company about the music in the video, they have not claimed copyright and instead have just requeted that links back to them at iTunes and Amazon are posted with the video on YouTube. Also Jill and Kevin have set up a website about the video due to it's amazing uptake - over 13 million views on YouTube!!]

University is now in full swing, with assignments released and all clamouring for attention and servicing. The first wave are all due around the same days, so that should be a bit of fun. I’m aiming to get the first couple knocked out this week in a pre-emptive strike to ensure I don’t get hammered at the end. Totally sorted time management!! I haven’t been trawling the intrawebz over the weekend, so I don’t have a big stack of “fun stuff” to share today. I can’t remeber in I posted this previously, so I’ll do it here: check out neublack.com, it’s a cool siteshowcasing some cool stuff now and then.

I did get given the first season of HBO’s Entourage in HD and I am now officially an addict. I don’t watch that much TV really (being a g33k on my ‘puter) but this was great. I watched the whole season in one night, and loved it. It’s not the deepest, most intellectually stimulating show, but it is just good fun with some decent scripting and acting to hold it well together. And, Mark Wahlberg is an Executive Producer which doesn’t hurt at all. Anyways, I may have been slow getting into it, but I’m fully into it now. Bring on some moar!

Well, back to the study/assignment work now. So more tomorrow.

[insert title here]

I just felt like using that as a title today. Hmmm. Found this cool picture of the difference between Pixar and DreamWorks. Kinda says it all doesn’t it. While you’re at it, check out the short films on Pixar’s site….definitely worth not doing any work for an hour or so.

Also, this is just AWESOME!! They seriously need to actually make this movie: TRANSFORMINATORS….

I’d pay good money to go see that, and I think you would too.

Just been to a leture this morning on how to generate codes. Kinda flat really, and not that stimulating. I find the texts much more interesting, as you can see a bit more of the history and context of the content. I also realised today that I was in a room full of foreigners, being lectured to by a teaching staff of foreigners, and then we wonder why New Zealanders don’t push themselves. We are a bit of a nation of slackers in general. We have some achievers, but, y’know. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with foreigners. Actually, one of my lecturers was a senior research scientist at the Russian Institute for Optical Studies or something. Basically, in the 1970′s he was involved in analysing satellite imagery of US bases and processing it through software he wrote to get real data out of it. I am glad that we do actually have world experts teaching us this stuff, and people who have used it for real-life scenarios too.

And then I stumbled upon this gem, and I really mean gem, of a YouTube flick. Validation – because you are great!

I’m pulling together a whole lot of stuff today, catching up on what I’ve missed over the past week due to being sick. I was intending to tidy everything, and get all prepped for semester, as well as semi-launch sites etc. Now assignments are loading up, and I’ve also got Google CodeJam to prep for too; so good times ahead. I’ve also been glancing at some of the thoughts floating around regarding HTML5 and the influence/impact it will have. Particularly interesting was this article (from January 2009) by Steve Smith. It gives a nice summary of what is happening, and also some guidance as to how to handle compatibility/incompatibility issues and how to future-proof sites as you are building them now.

I’m also getting more inspired to customise my own WordPress theme and host it myself, because I’m still not entirely happy with the aesthetics and thematics of how my code snippets and other components display. I changed to this theme the other day, and it’s ok, but not “what I would envision”.

Anyways, back into the study and assignments, so enough of my wiffle ’til tomorrow.

today is a day is a day

Well, the site is definitely done now (except the final cronjob stuff – yep, it’s still hanging around!!) and I worked some hacks and fixes for dealing with Internet Explorer….ran trials in my 9 or 10 browsers, and the only fails were IE, Maxthon, and other IE-based browswers. Solved that by scripting two sets of css and JavaScript dependant on what the browser in use is. Why can’t Microsoft just build a real standards-compliant browser and be done with it?? I’m probably going to delay actually going live for another few weeks as I have two more exams to prioritise, then I fly out the following morning for a break, so realistically won’t get to confirm my testing on the live site ’til after I get back.

This morning I had the privilege of watching a pod of orcas swimming up along the coastline of the Waitemata Harbour, and back down again. They’d been inshore over-night, and then started moving around again. When I first saw them, they were surfacing quite a bit and display a lot of body and dorsal fin, as well as some white patches. By the time I raced home and got my camera, they’d calmed down a bit and were only surfacing enough to show a small amount of dorsal. Beautiful creatures, but unfortunately my pictures don’t show this to great effect. I’ll post one pic, just so you can see a bit, and also the beauty of the islands out in the harbour.

Otherwise, just been studying hard (trying to!) and getting ready for exams. Haven’t done much prep or planning for trip yet, but shouldn’t need much. I’ll be packing on Monday night after the exam, because I figure I don’t need sleep and can do that on plane. I’ll also be re-loading my laptop that night. I’ve got to install Office Pro once I can take my time…I still have to use MS because of specified programs for my Information Systems papers (MS Project is a required submission standard), but my other box is about to be re-built as a Linux and LAMP box. Again, just haven’t had the time to do it so far this year, and allowing time to remedy issues. It will happen, just all in good time.

In other news, what I predicted all along has come to be true for thestory about the Belgian girl who got 56 stars tattooed on her face. She has now admitted to lying because her father was angry (link here @ dailymail.co.uk). I knew no tattoist would “accidentally” or deliberately do 56 stars when only asked for 3. At least he has now been vindicated after a week of crap from everybody.

Best go back to the study, so I’ll just leave you with this great version of Katy Perry’s “Hot and Cold”:

Enjoy.