Macgasm

I love twitter. I probably spend more time on there then I do almost anything else. I’m not sure if it’s good to be admitting it, but I’m pretty much addicted to it. That being said, there’s something I hate about twitter, and it’s something that the development team over there really needs to figure out. Spammers. I’m not talking about the traditional type of spammers, those are actually pretty minimal considering the popularity of the service. I’m talking people who follow you today, then unfollow you tomorrow when you don’t follow them back.

In my opinion, these people are worse than people pushing v!agra in direct messages.

It was pretty difficult to determine who was genuinely following you because they like what you’re saying, and those people who have such low self-esteem that they somehow equate a high following count on twitter to being popular. I’ll never understand it. If it wasn’t for BirdBrain, I’d probably still be guessing which are genuine followers, and which are self-involved. If I’m coming off sounding a little harsh, I completely intend to be at this point. If there’s anything that’s going to kill Twitter as we know it, it’s going to be this.

Thankfully, there’s a tool that’s helped me keep tabs on the worst offenders out there. Birdbrain gives you analytics on your followers. It lets you know who followed you today, and who unfollowed you. It also lets you compare these statistics over the course of time so you can see your net gains in your followers. At first I wasn’t sure just how handy this application would be, since Twitter isn’t about the golden ratio to me. It’s completely about letting people get to know the real me, my thoughts, and my opinions. Sure there’s marketing potential here, but it’s not my number one focus. What I began to notice was Birdbrain is excellent at letting you know who the superficial Twitter users are in a way that doesn’t take much research.

All you have to do is open up the application, check who followed you today, and then wait until tomorrow, or a week later before you even begin to think about adding the person. It’s a little bit of work, but it’ll add to the quality of your audience on Twitter. It’s not unreasonable to get a handful of people adding you today, and removing you tomorrow. Sure, it might be that they don’t like what you’re saying, but, I’d gander that most of them are just trying to bump their stats in a cheap way.

If you want to get a handle on this I’d recommend checking out Birdbrain. It’s worth the money, and it’s worth the time it takes to implement into your workflow. You’ll clean up your Twitter account in no time.

Christine Morris is the host of the quirky iPhone application review show Apps and Hats, as well as one of our co-jurors over at The App Star Awards, . We’ve decided to get some application recommendations from members of the jury since they’re all as geeky about iPhones as we are. It’s win-win-win for all of us.

You can check out our other App Star Jury guest posts here.

5 Apps that illustrate what the iPhone is all about.

If you were to make a list of your favorite apps I’m sure you would find it difficult. For me, it would come down to that exact moment in time that I was using my iPhone, and what I was using it for. I have favorite productivity, books, photography, games… the list goes on, and apps that I really can’t live without (yes that would be a Twitter apps of course!).

That made me think … actually, if I was going to make a list of 5 apps I’d have to highlight, for me something that is essential, I call it *iPhoneness*.

That’s what it’s all about.

Which apps take the unique interface and properties of this device and really spend some time, effort and perspiration to give us the new and innovative… These apps got my pulse racing and they used that sexy iPhoneness in new and unique or even ground breaking ways (yes, I know, they’re just apps!). Interestingly it seems that the people working in the games field seem to be the most innovative. This isn’t scientific research of course, just my observation.

Here are 5 apps that I feel have captured the essence of the iPhone (hmm wonder if I could bottle & wear that).

Flight Control

Flight Control was a real bright spark when it came out. It really took the idea of us using the touchscreen to control the planes. It was exciting! The interface of this game is simple, elegant and it has a cute soundtrack (which I think is too brief). When it came to our screens it was a huge hit, even for folks who were not big game players, they wanted to see what all the fuss was about. The first version released was basic, having just one style of game play and no real connection for high scores. Now we see it in all its glory with many different airfields and connection to high scores. This makes for real addiction. What’s not to love?

Just to mention of course that it also led the spin off games of the equally addictive Harbor Master and Car Mania which both deserve a look at.

Assassin FPS

Assassin FPS this beauty really makes a cross over with the traditional FPS style games because it lets us use our environment. What the app does is it uses the camera as the games background and let’s us ‘shoot’ what’s on screen. I can tell you from experience that if I am having any type of car journey with the kids my device always ends up with them and they shoot the traffic non-stop. Sure it’s essentially a simple idea, but they did it and I love it! You can also use the camera to take a picture and keep your shooting as an image file. They are busy making even more weapons for us to take our frustrations out! Worth a try.

Bed Bugs

Bed Bugs is a game that I loved from the second I saw it. I couldn’t put it down once I started to play! The design of it is so crisp and imaginative but that’s not even the reason why I love it so much. It really uses the device in a way that makes us really get that adrenaline pumping through the manic gameplay. There are levels in this game that require us to use both hands for squishing these bugs! It can be fast and furious and only on this device is it possible.

My only complaint is that I really really *really* want more levels. Or even an infinity mode, I just can’t get enough of this game and infinity would make my life complete.

Tweet ‘n Walk

Tweet ‘n Walk also uses the camera to make those of us with slight addictions to Twitter a happier bunch. Basically, when you use this app, it will show you Twitter and your environment (using the camera as your eyes). If I am walking I can launch this app and ‘see’ where I am going. Great for those busy days when you just want to send a quick tweet or two between tasks. It has a really nice design when you tweet, showing the twitter bird on your screen and is a great app to use when you are on the go. I’m still undecided if it makes me feel noxious or not when I use it but it just doesn’t matter, they made an app that uses the iPhone cleverly and there have since been copies of it.

Slight downside to this app still and not the fault of the developer is that the keyboard is solid, reducing the visible area slightly. I’m not sure if this is something that can be altered or not.

Air Mouse

Lastly, Air Mouse is a great idea for an alternative use for your iPhone. You need a working wifi connection to get your device to connect with your computer, but once you do it has so many options. You can use it as a trackpad device, but you can also access shortcuts to popular programs, like iTunes, Safari etc. You can click basic keyboard items (and full keyboard if you want to) such as your F keys, arrows, home, enter and full music volume controls. It has three modes of use, Air Motion, Touch Motion and Scrolling so you can use this device how it suits you best. You can also use it in landscape so there is more room for your fingers. I can’t think of any other features I’d like this app to have, it easily feels like the most comprehensive app for use as a trackpad/air device.

Sometimes my network isn’t as great as it should be so there are slight issues with connectivity, and you may need to keep your phone plugged in if you will be using it all day.

Conclusion

These apps for me really make the difference between having an iPhone compared to other types of smartphones. They are usually the ones that I take out to show people to explain why this device is so amazing and why there is still so much room for development. Let’s keep those clever sexy apps coming folks! Hope you give some of them a try if you haven’t already.

An Episode of Apps and Hats

In case you didn’t know, I have been doing a series of articles about what I want out of a web browser. Part I was an overview of the must-have features. Part II was a breakdown of rearranging tabs and having a small visual footprint. Part III involved having a customizable search bar and adhering to the latest web standards in web browsers. Today, I want to go over why my dream browser needs to have basic add-on capability and bookmark, history, and cookie syncing.

Basic Add-on Capability

The number one reason, in my experience, why people refuse to switch away from Firefox is the add-ons. However, add-ons might also be the downfall of Firefox as well. I hear constant chatter about memory leaks caused by rogue extensions. I don’t necessarily think that the Firefox model of add-ons is perfect, but I certainly would appriciate having a way to tweak Safari that was less hack-y than SIMBL. Some features like keyword search and flash video capture are important to me, and they can easily be handled by third-party add-ons.

Bookmark, History, and Cookie Syncing

I use two Macs every single day. Regardless of which computer I am using at the time, I want my browsing experience to be seamless. I don’t want to spend five minutes hunting for a bookmark that I saved on my other computer. I don’t want to waste time logging in to the same websites every time I switch computers. If my browsers synced all of the important data with each other, my life would be immensely easier.

Photo Credit: L_K_M

One of the toughest things with running this site, despite the multitude of other things that eat my time, is making sure that the site is up and running in tip top shape. We’re a small group, and we don’t have the luxury of having other people maintain our servers, so I need to ensure that I know when something’s broken, as soon as it’s broken. Actually, I prefer to know that something’s going to break before it actually breaks, but that isn’t always possible.

We’ve highlighted some tools for the iPhone that let us maintain some degree of monitoring of our servers while we’re on the go, but we’ve never recommended any desktop applications that do the same thing. The joy of desktop applications is that you can actually monitor server services in ways that don’t seem to be possible on the iPhone.

So if you want to monitor web services, dns services, smtp services, as well as a host of other services, on multiple servers you need to check out Simon (The application, not our blogger). It’s not overly complicated, and it certainly notifies you when things break. Check it out, it’ll make monitoring a network a lot easier, and it might even help you get some extra time playing video games at work. How is that possible, you ask? Well, Simon notifies you of the server failures through a number of options. It can notify you via email, or play a sound for you, or even talk to you. That means you no longer have to micromanage your servers, and instead get to focus on some things that make you a more pleasant co-worker–slacking off. It’s not free, and there seems to be multiple license options, so you’ll want to take into account what your network might require before you make any hasty purchases.

There’s a couple things that have been on my mind for quite a while, and I’ve only just started to be able to figure them out in my head. I thought this would be a good place to get a discussion going about some things that have been starting to annoy me lately, and I wonder if others are feeling the same way I am.

I’m here for the quick buck

What are the ethics in creating an application for the AppStore, charging money for it, and then abandoning it’s development, but still charging for an application that has known bugs?

We’re in the early stages of the AppStore, but this seems to be something that’s going to have to be looked at eventually. With new iterations of iPhones and Touches coming yearly, there will eventually be a tipping point where applications will cease to work on either device, unless they get some more attention from developers.

We’ve been hearing a lot of noise from developers about the increasingly annoying tendencies of Apple to pull applications, and even make it difficult for them to publish their applications on the AppStore, but who’s talking on behalf of consumers who are spending money on applications only to find out they’re broken, and, poorly supported? I’ve received a number of emails over the last year from consumers who’ve received scathing remarks from iPhone developers when an app purchaser asks questions about support cycles and updates. The replies are sickening at the very best of times, but toss in the fact that consumers have spent money on these applications, and it starts to becoming a little more nauseating than the situation already is to begin with. Why is no one talking about this, and why have we made it okay for developers to treat the AppStore like the gold rush, stepping on people along the way, making a quick buck, then bailing on their consumers as soon as they’ve received some monetary benefits?  It doesn’t seem alright to me, and it’s becoming quite alarming.  This is not one of the reasons I write about Apple.  It makes me ill, and needs to be addressed.

An Open AppStore Clearly Isn’t What We Need

The second thing that’s really starting to annoy me is that iPhone developers are lambasting the AppStore process in public forums, without thinking about how consumers feel. There’s a key difference between developing for a desktop platform and a mobile device, and I think it’s about time we actually talk about them.  Developers need to realize that consumers approach mobile applications in a very different way than they approach desktop applications.  They need to develop accordingly, instead of whining and complaining about how Apple has created a closed the system.

I don’t install new applications, for personal use, on my desktop very often, and when I do, it’s from a reputable source. There’s development firms out there that produce sound applications that make my work-flow easier. I’m completely confident in the tools they’re releasing, so they get installed without a second guess.

If on some off chance I decide to try a new application from someone I haven’t heard of before (happens a lot since I review applications), and somehow they mess up my machine, I can revert to a backup relatively quickly. Heck, if I can’t revert to a backup, I can live with using my laptop until I get around to fixing the problem on my machine. Conversely, I don’t have that luxury with my iPhone. If it’s broken, I need access to a desktop with my backup to fix it. So, I’m completely screwed if I’m on the road. Furthermore, I don’t have a second phone to replace my iPhone, and if a poorly coded application decides it’s going to eat my OS for lunch, I’m screwed. I’ll now have no way of communicating with people and clients trying to phone me. None. Zero.

So, when we put together my two annoyances we have an iPhone AppStore, where two thirds of the applications were developed to make a quick buck, they’re poorly coded, written in haste, and buggy as hell. They don’t get quick bug fixes, and developers leave them on the store to make a couple extra dollars to supplement their day job, in addition to a bunch of people arguing that Apple shouldn’t be meddling in the approval process.  Funny, it seems like there are some applications that Apple has already vetted, in an apparently extensive review process, still making my phone unstable. What would the AppStore look like if the vetting process was removed, and instead there was a carte blanche for iPhone developers?

The AppStore would turn into a market where a few big developers gain the trust of iPhone users, and users will be reluctant to try anything new because it could completely annihilate their phone. That’s not the world I want to live in as a consumer. I want to be able to install an application with some degree of faith that the absolute junk was already weeded out.

Before everyone gets their panties in a bunch, my thoughts, and subsequent rant here has nothing to do with me advocating an application gate keeper. Apple should not, under any circumstance determine whose applications get published and whose gets tossed on the scrap heap. They should however be able to vet out applications that break the device. If they can expedite their current process, and eliminate developers concerns about the time it’s taking to carry out that process, then I’m all for a closed system. Wouldn’t you?

The big development firms might find the process to be restricting because they have both the knowledge and the time to properly test their applications before submitting the programs they create for review, but, I’m not all that confident that the get rich over night crowd has the skill set to do that. Some might, but I bet a large majority of them don’t. The restrictions aren’t in place because of the Facebooks or the Rogue Ameoba’s of the world, they’re in place for us, the consumer, who wants a little assurance that a flashlight application won’t make their phone unstable, and that fart applications actually make fart noises. It’s not always about developers, and sometimes, just sometimes, it’s about consumers having devices that work.

Where do you stand on all this?  Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: DavidDMuir and Christopher Chan

Have you ever used an application for a subset of tasks, and then wished you could use it for another subset of tasks, but you’re limited to one account? For instance, maybe it’s an iTunes or iPhoto library. Sometimes having information in different libraries has a host of benefits, Apple has given us the ability to do that with some applications (iPhoto), but sometimes we’re left figuring out a creative way around the problem.

Something that comes to mind for me in particular is Billings. I’m not sure why, but they only give you the ability to have one account set up at a time, and sadly all your invoices are attached to the information in that account. I can’t switch between my businesses easily, so instead of having an easy way to change between invoices with my design business information attached to it, and the Macgasm invoices we use for advertising, I’m stuck having to change all my business info on my invoices every single time I need to send out invoices from different accounts. It’s not very productive.

Enter RooSwitch. It’s a multi-user environment for an application. What it does is create a new blank database for you so that you can switch between them, and maximize your time spent in one, and then switch back when you’re done. Sounds like an application that might lend itself well to my application recommendation from this morning. There’s not really much to write about other than that, but I have been finding it super useful, so I decided to pass it along. If you have any app recommendations we’d love to hear about them in the comments.

Image Credit: Joriel “Joz” Jimenez

It is easy to customize how the time displays in the right-hand side of your menu bar. Maybe you want to display the day of the week. Maybe you want to switch to a twenty-four hour clock. It’s not at all a hassle to change.

First, open System Preferences. Next, go to the Date and Time pane, and then switch to the Clock tab. You will then be shown a handful of checkboxes. Since the settings take effect immediately, feel free to tool around until you find just the right set-up for your time-telling needs.

Photo Credit: maebmij

In Part I of this series, I gave an overview of the must-have features for the web browser of my dreams. In Part II, I broke down the importance of rearranging tabs and having a small visual footprint. In this installment, I will be discussing the benefits of having a customizable search bar and adhering to the latest web standards in web browsers.

Customizable Search Bar

At first, you might think “Why would I need a search engine other than Google in my toolbar?” Mostly, I agree with you. I am fine with only having Google for 90% of my searching needs. However, I need to search specific websites a couple of times a week. Having the ability to add Wikipedia or Flickr search to my search bar would be a big help. For now, I use a bit of a work around with Safari Stand, but this is clearly something that would make my life considerably simpler if it was included with Safari. Do you hear me, Apple? Anyone? No?

Adheres to the Latest Web Standards

This is extremely important to me, but it doesn’t necessarily have any practical or noticeable impact on the end user. Even if your rendering engine doesn’t pass the latest acid test, it probably displays almost everything correctly on the web (Thanks to the hard work of web developers). That said, if every browser was standards compliant, we could be browsing much cooler websites. The developers could be spending their time innovating instead of tweaking. Also, there is something to be said for supporting the best of the best. If a browser is consistently pushing the envelope in implementing standards, that is something I want to get behind. In some ways, it is more of a cosmic reasoning than a practical reasoning.

In Part IV of this series, I’ll discuss the benefits of having basic add-on capability and bookmark/history/cookie syncing.

Photo Credit: doug88888