“Lenovo’s 27” tablet is a smart idea, costs £1,000 and is due this summer”
For a second I thought I was on The Onion.
This is pretty amazing.
Here’s a minor iOS 6 tweak that was just pointed out to me:
When you’re choosing a wallpaper, images are automatically resized to fit the full display – since I assume most people don’t like using only part of an image as a wallpaper (I certainly don’t).
Here’s what it would have previously looked like (in iOS 5) if you chose an landscape image to use as a wallpaper on your iPhone:
Instead, iOS automatically fills the screen with your image, like this:
You can of course shrink the image down if you like, but it’s nice not to have to play around pinching in and out if you just want your image to fill the display vertically.
Hat tip to @amelia_rosebell for pointing this out!
Great marketing video for what looks to be a great product.
I wonder how well they’ll do after the initial buzz dies down. It’s going to be incredibly tough to steal market share from the big boys.
Felix Baumgartner is attempting to break the speed of sound, while free falling from the edge of space.
Watch this incredible visualization of the entire process created by Peter Clausen Film and AixSponza.
The mission:
Red Bull Stratos, a mission to the edge of space. Felix Baumgartner will be going up to 120,000 feet in a capsule attached to a helium balloon. Once he’s up there he’ll jump doing the highest parachute jump ever done by a human.
Read more about the mission here.
This time I was the interviewee:
Shawn and Ben are joined by Ryan Cash, former marketing director at Marketcircle and founder of Snowman, makers of the iPhone reminders app, Checkmark. We talked with Ryan about his transition and motivation to go from working for a medium-sized company to starting his own indie iOS dev shop, the challenges of building and shipping an iPhone app, and more.
Thanks guys, I had fun!
Alex MacCaw, in his article about working at Stripe:
It turns out that the average monitor size at a company is a good tell as to how much employers care about first-class equipment and, in turn, their employees. Stripe get this right.
The Oatmeal teamed up with J&D’s (creators of BaconSalt and Baconnaise) to create Sriracha-flavored popcorn.
We cooked this popcorn using a special blend of garlic, vinegar, and peppers to create a fiery explosion for your mouth.
If you cram enough of it into your face at once it becomes quite spicy, but if you pace yourself it’s like a riverboat cruise through the jungles of dee-lish.
This looks awesome.
Don Lehman:
Overall this design is a major improvement over the 4/4S. Functionally, it’s worlds better, and aesthetically, I think it’s stunning. At first glance it doesn’t appear to be dramatically different from its predecessor, but when you really dig into it, there are a ton of changes that make it appreciably nicer. If you aren’t excited about it now, you will be when you see one in person. Classic Apple design refinement.
And the coke nail callout is amazing.
(Via Marco Arment & Matthew Panzarino)
“Micro-technology makes it smaller than a business card…slip one on your key-ring, and you’ll remember everything!”
If you don’t use Checkmark, this is probably your next best bet. It even has a built-in flashlight.
Business Insider, writing about Checkmark:
Checkmark is a new location-based reminders app that rivals our old favorite Clear and Apple’s own Reminders.
The article also features a bit of Q/A with yours truly about the development of Checkmark.
Checkmark for iPhone is the fastest way to remind yourself of all the things you have to do in your busy life – and now it’s available for sale in the App Store.
For a limited time try Checkmark for just 0.99 cents.
I was stunned when I saw a TV commercial for Internet Explorer during this season’s premiere of Breaking Bad last night, so I decided to look it up on YouTube to share with a friend.
While doing so, I came across another IE 9 ad – this time quoting ConceivablyTech:
I then decided it would be a good idea to check out this “Conceivably Tech” website…
Now I can see how “Conceivably Tech” called it “simply stunning”.
Also note that Microsoft refers to them as “Conceivably Tech” (two words), when it should read “ConceivablyTech”.
It’s a little surprising (or maybe not) that Microsoft would quote such a small and unaccredited website in a major commercial, alongside The New York Times…but then again, it is Microsoft.
Note: I’m not making any judgements about ConceivablyTech’s writing – I didn’t read anything there. I do however, recommend they invest in a good web designer.
Today’s a big day for me.
After a ton of hard work I can finally share what I’ve been working on with the rest of the world – Checkmark for iPhone.
It all started last year when I began using Reminders for iPhone during the iOS 5 developer preview. Reminders quickly became my favourite app for iPhone, specifically due to the ability to set location-based reminders.
Setting location-based reminders for my to-do’s ensured I always remembered to do them when I was able to. I was in love.
After a few weeks of heavy use I realized how annoying it was to set these location-based reminders with the Reminders app. It’s almost as bad to set a date/time based reminder too.
Of course with Siri it’s not a huge hassle but who wants to talk into their phone when they’re out with friends to set reminders?
A bit of research confirmed my suspicion – most of the people I spoke with only use Siri to set reminders if they’re driving. A few people mentioned that they use it if they’re alone, but usually they just enter them manually because they’re used to doing that. Nobody wants to be heard saying “Shave when I get home” when they’re out at a restaurant with a group of friends.
So I set out to build an app that would greatly improve the reminder creation process for both location and time-based reminders. And that’s how Checkmark came to be.
We brought the reminder creation process down to 3 steps from 11 for location-based reminders, and from 8 to 3 for date/time reminders.
Along the way we decided to add some other cool things, like the ability to add a time delay to a reminder (props to Adam Lisagor for the idea) so that your phone doesn’t alert you while you’re walking in the front door with your arms full of groceries – set it to remind you 15 minutes after you arrive. We can also show you a list of everything you have to do, sorted by how far things are from your current location, and more
This is just the beginning for Checkmark. We have a ton of plans for the future and we’re already hard at work on some exciting new things.
I can’t wait for everyone to try it.
Visit www.getcheckmark.com for a sneak peak. We’ll be shipping soon!
Shawn Blanc:
The iPhone’s abilities as a camera have significantly improved over the years. If your budget or your interest in photography don’t warrant a high-quality camera, fortunately it’s safe to say that Apple will continue to make the iPhone into a great camera.
Last night I tweeted:
I am absolutely shocked how well this rolling shot of a Ferrari Enzo turned out. It was shot with an iPhone 4.
Not even a 4S.
Seth Godin:
“I have kids at home, I don’t have a manager, I need to pay off student debt, my boss never lets me, I’m really busy because of soccer season, my knee is acting up, there’s already five galas coming up, my RSI hurts when I type, I don’t have a degree, I have a degree and can’t waste it, I’m not good at that, I tried it before but it didn’t work, I’ve never tried it before, the weather is crazy, isn’t it, the election is right around the corner, it’s been too long at this job they won’t listen to me, I’m going to retire soon, I’m too young, I’ll never learn, it’s too risky…”
We all have a list. Most of the things on it may in fact be legitimate reasons for no.
There’s always a reason it won’t work.
Good thing we have the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, and the round pegs in the square holes.
Disclaimer: Ben’s “It’s the Little Things” post earlier today inspired me to write this.
One thing that took a little getting used to in my BMW 328i (E36), is the way the volume control works.
In all of the previous cars I’ve owned (Nissan, Subaru, Toyota) with both OEM and aftermarket sound systems, when you turn the volume knob on the dash the volume level is shown on the stereo adjusting in real time.
What’s the REAL point of that?
For people with mild OCD we’re always trying to make sure the volume level is set at an even number – say 14 or 28. Some people need it to feel even “more even” at 10 or 20.
Everyone (myself included) is always trying to find the “right” sound level, often multiple times throughout a drive. You have to change the volume when your windows are down, when they’re up, when you’re on the highway, if people are talking, etc.
But are we adjusting the volume based on sound, or are we first adjusting it based on an arbitrary number we see on a screen, that comes close to an appropriate sound level?
My BMW does not display a sound level.
At first it sort of bothered me – it felt like something was missing.
Now that I’ve gotten used to it, I love it. When I turn the volume knob I use my ears to determine when the sound is “right” – not my eyes.
There are a few counterpoints that can be made, for example “I set my volume to 32 to this CD because I know it’s right and I set it to 27 for the radio. That way I can quickly adjust the sound to the level I already know is right.”
I’m not sure if BMW is still doing this in their current models, as they seem to be conforming more to the masses (e.g. moving the window switches back to the doors instead of the center position near the gear shift).
But I think BMW had it right – even if only for a limited time.
The last major project I worked on during my five year career at Marketcircle went live today.
Ben Brooks, after linking to Andy Ihnatko’s article “The Mac App Store: Falling In Love Again”:
Andy Ihnatko:
“But damn, yes, the Store makes life so much easier for every user.”
I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent trying to dig through old emails and guess at old passwords to get registration credentials for old software. That used to be the sole reason that I never deleted software from my Mac.
Just before the Mac App Store I started to store this data in Yojimbo so that I could delete apps, but the Mac App Store just makes deleting apps you don’t want anymore a no-brainer. So what if I have to pay for upgrades, at least I have a full, working, archive of every app I bought.
Occasionally I go as far as buying apps and deleting them right away – just to take advantage of the launch price on something that looks interesting or fun that I may want to try/use in the future.
I did this just the other day with Coda 2 and Diet Coda. Bought, installed, deleted.
Sometimes I’ll buy something just to support the community.
