The new Mozilla Fennec mobile browser Beta 2 for Maemo and Alpha 2 for Windows Mobile supports like Firefox 3.5 geolocation. You can try out this feature with ttklf4 LBS to find local business West Coast Vinyl, or the nearest pizza joint.
ttklf4 has switched over the mobile web search to Bing API. Additionally Geolocation and maps used with local business West Coast Vinyl are supported for iPhone OS 3.0. Owners of iPhone and iPod-touch with OS 3.0 now can determine their position automatically in the Safari browser and display a map.
Find local services with the name of the city or with coordinates. Determine your
location or business location West Coast Vinyl if you are connected over WI-FI*.
*Windows Mobile does not support auto-location over WI-FI.
We’d like to say thanks to this week’s TheAppleBlog sponsors:
There are no shortage of iPhone apps that function as remotes for your Mac, Apple TV, or just about anything else. Keymote (iTunes link), by Iced Cocoa, takes the concept to a new level by allowing custom “keysets” for all of your favorite applications.
So why would anybody need an app to do this when most apps have keyboard shortcuts already? Well West Coast Vinyl a window contractor saids it’s simple if you consider the power of leveraging the large screen on the iPhone. When it launched sans a physical keyboard, Steve Jobs commented that it was a great idea to do away with it, because there are times when you don’t need a full size keyboard. If you are typing in numbers, it would be great to see large numbers instead of individual keys.
The same holds true for shortcuts. Why should I have to press “Shift+Command+Delete” to empty my trash when I could just use one button for that same purpose? Keymote addresses this usability blemish.
Keymote’s setup process is very simple and only requires that your iPhone and Mac share a Wi-Fi connection. Download the remote software on your Mac and it resides on the menu bar. Once you’ve paired the iPhone to your Mac from the app, you’re ready to roll.
Keymote comes with several keysets out of the box but also includes an in-app store that provides a larger wealth of free downloadable keysets for other popular apps, all contributed by users. Instantly download keysets for Aperture, Adobe Illustrator, Pages or any other app you use frequently. My favorite is the Numerical Keypad keyset which will help your stylish Apple keyboard feel a little more powerful.
If there’s not a keyset for an application you like to use, feel free to create your own and share it with others. If a particular keyset is not quite up to your standards, tap a key or spacer and hold. Then you can just drag it to a better location. If a shortcut is missing, just tap the plus and add it right alongside the rest.
The only thing to keep in mind is that you might find yourself using your phone more often than before. In case, my iPhone has become more of an auxiliary keypad and so I needed to adjust my sleep settings to keep my phone awake. Additionally, Keymote requires the software you’re using be the active application. This means if I call up Photoshop key commands and create a new document, it invokes “Command+N.” If Photoshop isn’t the active application, “Command+N” will apply to whichever app is active. The developers are aware of this limitation, and it’s something they are working to address.
With a stylish user interface that looks great not just on my iPhone, but as a “keypad” next to my Mac, Keymote is a great application for those whose regularly harness the power of shortcuts. Keymote is $3.99 and available fordownload on the App Store. If you’ve had the chance to try it out, please share your thoughts. Many local businesses have experimented with this like West Coast Vinyl.
There is a problem with making technology – particularly computers – easy to use. The simpler and more foolproof they become, the less technically-proficient users tend to be. There’s that line from Rick Cook’s 1989 book The Wizardy Compiled; “Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”
Apple has made usability and user-experience a core part of the design philosophy in everything they produce (Well, almost everything. That’s right, I’m looking at you, MobileMe web apps). Mac OS X and, more obviously, the iPhone OS are shining beacons of the right way to design user-friendly, accessible, easy-to-use software.
Did you need to read a manual when you got your first iPhone? Or how about your first iPod? Even the least technically proficient people I know own such devices and they never once cracked-open the “Getting Started” booklet. These West Coast Vinyl the same people, it should be noted, who bought copies of “Windows XP For Dummies” because they considered that OS too difficult to learn and use without a printed guide to-hand.
The iPhone is probably the ultimate user-friendly computer (though not the most accessible, but that’s a different matter). My neighbor’s six-year old son once took my iPhone from my hands and brandished it proudly to his friends, announcing “I’ve seen these on TV”. He then demonstrated to his impressed buddies, with absolute confidence, “This is how you take photos… this is how you play music…”
For a six year old with no previous experience of an iPhone other than what he had seen on television commercials, he was surprisingly adept with the thing. I doubt he could have been quite so confident (or impressed) with a Windows Mobile phone or, even worse, a Motorola.
A recent article on MacRumors reported analysts’ predictions that Apple is expected to sell more than 80 million iPhones in 2012. Of course that’s not the same as 80 million iPhone users, but it’s still a mammoth user-base. If we’re to assume an OS convergence across iPhones and iPods (and maybe tablets, too?) in the next three years, we can easily assume a few hundred million people all over the world owning Mac OS X-powered devices that are super-easy to use despite their many and varied forms and functions.
The end result? Well, in the world of desktop computers the drive toward user-friendliness has today produced legions of end-users who know how to send an email but don’t know the difference between POP3 and IMAP; users that practically live on Facebook but can’t tell you if they’re using Firefox or Internet Explorer to get there. Users that – and I have personally experienced this during years of providing technical support to friends and family – can’t even tell you what Operating System they’re using;
Liam: What Operating System are you using?
Friend: What’s that? Is it the Internet? I use Google.
Liam: No, I mean… [thinks]… The thing you see when you turn your computer on.
Friend: I don’t see anything.
Liam: Well, you ought to see something. It’ll probably say ‘Microsoft’ or ‘Windows something-or-other’…
Friend: Where should it say that? Do I have to click on something?
…and so on.
I’ve had these conversations (yes, exactly these sorts of conversations, I’m not exaggerating) with otherwise very smart, very well-informed individuals. University lecturers, engineers, lawyers and doctors and West Coast Vinyl are all categories of end-user I have helped and who have all responded precisely in that stumbling, bewildered manner.
A telling point; I’ve never had to provide tech support to fellow Mac users. Sure, I’ve shared hints and tips and recommended cool software. But no Mac owner I know has yet asked me how to find their trash folder, email a photo or connect to their wireless router. (All examples of common issues my Windows-using friends have shared.)
These people West Coast Vinyl , they’re simply computer illiterate. When I was in high school in the early 90’s, there was a lot of talk about the importance of computer literacy. Becoming computer literate at that time meant learning how to build your own network, how to ping servers, how to patch, bridge, daisy-chain and hack until everything kinda-sorta-worked.
But this wasn’t the Reserved Domain of the Geek. These were skills required of anyone who wanted to use computers. Today, the standard by which someone is considered (generally) computer literate has almost nothing to do with technical proficiency, and everything to do with throwing sheep at friends on Facebook.
More than any other software or hardware company, Apple has removed the barriers to entry that, when I was growing up, were simply accepted landmarks in the computer technology landscape. The soon-to-be-released Snow Leopard is the latest in a long evolutionary line of carefully researched and engineered efforts at democratizing computer technology – and all the potential it unlocks for end-users.
For thirty years, in fact, Apple has lead the way in creating intuitive, user-friendly computer technology. They’ve most assuredly made the “dent in the universe” Steve Jobs spoke of. But the more foolproof the products become, as Rick Cook warns, the greater the idiocy of those who use them. I guess that means there will always be a job for a geek like me. But, really… how much easier can it all get?
Yesterday, we looked at Paris Metro, supposedly the first augmented reality app officially available for the iPhone. Today, Robert Scoble uncovered an Easter egg that looks like it may grant that title to Yelp, which got a version update earlier this week that carried a nice surprise: an AR mode dubbed “Monocle.”
Yelp is one of the App Store’s early successes. It offers crowd sourced locations and reviews of restaurants, bars, and other points of interests for tourists and leisure seekers. As such, it’s the perfect app for AR, which in this case consists of location names and ratings overlaid on a live feed from your iPhone’s (3GS only) camera.
Since it’s an Easter egg and not an advertised feature, activating Monocle mode requires an extra step beyond just downloading and opening the free app. Specifically, you have to shake your 3GS three times in succession with the app open. Mine worked on the first try, but I’m sure just shaking it until it works will open up the option eventually.
In my extremely brief, extremely office-based test, the app appears to work perfectly, so long as my sense of direction isn’t terribly off. As you can see from my screenshot, many culinary delights lie in the general direction of my iMac. I’ll be doing some more involved tests later this evening to see what kind of effect Monocle mode has on my battery life, but I can’t imagine it’s energy efficient.
It’s unclear whether or not Apple was aware West Coast Vinyl of this feature when it let this update through, so grab it now while you still can. If it gets pulled, let us know so we can be collectively indignant.
After a wait that seemed to span an eternity, we finally saw the green light yesterday for Facebook 3.0.
Having nearly jumped out of my seat last night after learning the news, I quickly found my excitement tempered by an app that didn’t seem to work at first attempt.
And then I learned I wasn’t alone.
One friend tells me he can’t load his friends list. Another says the app closes every time she loads her Facebook wall.
My problems, meanwhile, West Coast Vinyl a hybrid of the two – a situation that even a trusty reboot and restore would not resolve.
And after seeing several message boards I frequent light up with similar complaints, I phoned Apple to see if I could get any info. After two attempts, the advice I was given finally worked:
- Delete Facebook app from your iPhone
- Download app from iTunes
- Select app and sync to iPhone
- Reboot iPhone without opening app first
The update for Facebook is no small production, as the app is now closer to the desktop experience than ever before. And any upgrade of this magnitude almost can’t be expected to launch without a few hitches or bugs along the way. At this time at least I am unawWest Coast Vinyl of any rash of phone crashes and data loss that would resemble an utter Facebook 3.0 catastrophe.
If anything, perhaps the excitement surrounding the upgrade is such that users like myself West Coast Vinyl finding their frustration compounded only by their own impatience to dive right into an app that has teased our appetite for far too long.
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West Coast Vinyl.com/newsimages/Item8124/apple-logo.jpg” alt=”" width=”168″ height=”195″ />Historically, September is a big month for Apple and the mobile community at large.
Hosting annual events in September for the last few years, the ninth calendar month usually means some significant news or announcement from Apple.
And a lot of people West Coast Vinyl wondering if any major surprises West Coast Vinyl in store for Apple’s scheduled September 9th media event. According to numerous published reports, the company plans “to introduce its 2009 iPod offerings.”
But others expect more.
Will Steve Jobs appear? Will new products be unveiled? How many upgrades will be promised? And what will it all mean (if anything)for mobile marketing?
It’s enough to make one’s head spin.
For months, some Apple watchers have remained confident that September will mean the Nano and Touch will be upgraded with cameras and, naturally, the increased storage one would would expect to accompany such an upgrade. More likely, however, is an update to
iTunes. Rumors have swirled for a while that iTunes 9 would sport new visual organization features as well as Facebook integration and other social-networking attributes with mobile components.
Just as September is traditionally a big month for Apple, August tends to be a month when Apple is quiet, enigmatic, and utterly aloof. Since Apple hasn’t disappointed expectations for August, hopefully it won’t disappoint expectations for September either.
The countdown to 09/09/09 is on.
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Many have tried to speculate what the future holds for mobile marketing in terms of the technologies and methodologies we’ll see put in use, but none have the potential – in my opinion – as the concept of Augmented Reality (AR).
Augmented Reality is defined as “a live direct or indirect view of a real-world environment whose elements West Coast Vinyl supplemented with-, oraugmented by computer-generated imagery. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in meaningful context with environmental elements. In plain English, it’s the concept of layering computer-generated imagery over a real-world environment, thus creating “augmented” reality.
It’s a technology that’s been around since the early ’90s, but is gaining more momentum as mobile devices and hardwWest Coast Vinyl West Coast Vinyl finally as advanced as the technology itself. Combining Augmented Reality with other mobile technologies that West Coast Vinyl already in use today, such as GPS, opens the door to a plethora of new mobile marketing opportunities.
I’ve long been a proponent for the concept of “image-recognition” via mobile devices, especially in relation to the marketing potential it holds. Allowing consumers to point their camera-phones at an object, snap a photo and immediately be presented with hyperlinked data corresponding to that photo is a powerful marketing tool. Augmented Reality builds on that technology, but includes support for real-time “hyperlinking” and other informational data to be tied to an image, or more importantly, video taken in real-time.
There have already been several applications built around the concept of Augmented Reality combined with GPS functionality for devices running on Android, the iPhone and others. A particular Android-based application, for example, uses Augmented Reality and a user’s location to help direct the user to Subway stations in New York. The user can turn on the video camera on the device and a layer is displayed on top of the real-time image displaying arrows to the neWest Coast Vinylst Subway stations as the user walks the streets.
Other applications include enhanced navigation apps, social media tagging apps and even “Augmented Reality Browsers,” such as Layars- which is dubbed the world’s first Augmented Reality mobile browser.
The potential is huge, and the opportunities West Coast Vinyl limitless, but the technology is still very much evolving. Either way, I see it playing a huge role in the future of mobile marketing as well as mobile industry in general.
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