Macgasm

I am a Safari user. I feel strongly that the WebKit rendering engine is the best platform available today. When Google announced that they would be making their own WebKit-based web browser named Chrome, I was interested. However, that interest dropped off right away. They only released the browser on Windows. That, to me, showcased where their priorities are. I understand that there are more Windows users, but there is plenty of competition in the browser market. As a Mac user, I don’t want to be treated as a second-class citizen.

Google has been slowly releasing builds of their developer releases (AKA Chromium) for the Mac. This week, they released the very first public beta for Mac OS X. They are certainly taking their sweet time, but we’re finally seeing some substantial progress. At this point, it is pretty usable. There are only a few situations here and there where the browser decides to act up. I have been using the Chromium builds as my sole web browser for over a week now, and I’m not hating it. The beta, however, is substantially behind on the features. I love the Keychain integration and the separate processes for each tab. I admit without any hesitation that there are some great things about this browser. That said, it is fresh-from-the-womb new. Only time will tell how well things like themes and extensions will develop and bloom. The beta doesn’t even have the extensions implemented on the Mac yet. It could be amazing or a complete dud. I haven’t made up my mind yet.

In sum, Google’s Chromium builds and the Chrome Beta are a ton of fun to toy around with. If you’re enthusiastic about playing with new applications, give it a go. That said, don’t go jumping on any bandwagons. There is a lot of work left to be completed.

Photo Credit: Jill Clardy

You load an app thinking you finally get to stream video over the 3G network, and instead all I got was a rebooting phone, and pixelated images. We’ve waited this long for that? Come on Ustream, surely we could do a little better.

Ok, now that the whining is out of the way, let me tell you a little about the Ustream iPhone application. It works great, in theory, but there’s a couple of small things that really annoy me.

First the positives, the UI is pretty simple, and there isn’t much guess work needed to get to the settings, you can record locally, or stream to Ustream. You can record at 320×240 or 176×144, and you can leverage your social media contacts to get an audience to your videos. Probably the coolest feature of this whole application is being able to see people commenting on your video, while you’re streaming. Cool right? Well, what about if you want to, you know, face the camera? It’s kind of hard to see a screen when you’re looking at the camera. The next iPhone better have a camera on top of the screen.

Now for the negatives, what is it with the 320×240 resolution? I mean fine, I get that the camera can only pump out some much quality, but why the heck can’t your application do some math and let us use the device in landscape mode. It can’t be that difficult. The video would feel more natural. Video devices aren’t still cameras, so treating video like it is borders on the ridiculous. Also, I can’t seem to view my videos without the phone crashing on me, and rebooting, so if you can handle these gripes, this application might be for you.

Video Shot on a 3G

For the record, I didn’t just wake up. The bad hair is from the Toque I was wearing earlier today. See what happens when you can’t see yourself while you’re recording…

What’s the point of having more screen real-estate if you can’t get your applications to place nice with widescreen formats? One of the things that drives me absolutely bonkers is Mail.app, and its inability to re-arrange my application’s panes to have my inbox list on the left, and my preview box on the right. Makes sense right?

This is where the insanely great OS X developers come in, and their commitment to making the operating system even better than it already is currently. Aaron Harnley decided to take it upon himself to code up a hack that makes this possible. It’s a productivity saver and if you spend as much time in Mail as I do, then you’re going to love him for this. Letterbox is currently in Beta for Snow Leopard, and final release for Leopard and Tiger.

Did I mention that this is why I love the Mac community?

Busy much? Then you’re like me and you love a couple tv shows yet have a hard time being able to watch them or keep track of them. Whether you watch tv, record it on your PVR, Hulu, or download – this little iPhone-optimized Web application is very handy – Showtime App. This was developed using jQTouch — a jQuery plugin for mobile web development which makes it easy to make really slick iPhone web apps with simple HTML, Javascript and the jQuery library.

Now back to the Showtime app, you pick your favourite shows with a toggle switch, then…….that’s it, easy! It keeps a listing of the episodes of each show and notifies you with a little yellow star when a new episode is available. In the watch list, you will have a counter of how many episodes are available to watch. The Weekly Schedule screen is a new feature as of this month and gives a nice calendar week view of all your episodes.

The site boasts that it currently tracks 309 TV programs consisting of a total of 50,291 episodes. Not bad for a free app.

To get it, just visit http://showtime-app.com in the Safari web browser on the iPhone and add it to your homescreen for fullscreen mode.

The developer took some time to make this web app easy to use and nice to look at, so you he deserves a buck or two, don’t forget to donate if you can. Honestly, I can’t even tell this is a web app and not a native iPhone app, great job to the developer.

Are you bored with the typical dull Christmas cards that you can find everywhere? Want something fun and unique for your loved ones? Well, if you have more money than sense, and a knack for arts and crafts, here’s a fun little project that is sure to make someone very happy:

Not only is this a fun video and a genius idea but it’s a great way for the author to get his Christmas app Bauble noticed. Well done!

Could you imagine selling 100,000 copies of an iPhone application, and just how much money that would be in the bank? That’s how many the Bento team has managed to sell in just 6 months. The App, sitting with a $4.99 price tag has both shirked the conventional 0.99 price tag, and managed to keep a price point that’s lucrative to iPhone users. It’s something that they need to be commended for, and it’s certainly something that illustrates the purchasing power of iPhone users. It’s a clear testament to an applications utility, when they can sell that amount of product in that short of a time span.

Just in case you’re short on math skills, that adds up to 499,000 in six short months.  Simply Amazing.

As a complete aside, and completely completely unrelated to Bento, How long will these kinds of sales numbers last?

I’ve been spending some time thinking about a key point in 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout, and how it applies to the AppStore. The AppStore was the wild west on opening day, and people with applications ready to launch along side the AppStore were positioned to reap the lions share of purchases. Being first in the market, as Ries and Trout argue in their book, is the best way to insure the success of your business. If you can’t be first in a market, create a new sect of the market, and be first in that market.

The time for new iPhone development teams reaping giant financial gains for application development is quickly coming to a close, there will always be modest reward, but the days of Trism-eqsue rewards are long gone. There will always be sales, and there will always be applications that buck the trend, but for the most part, over night success is long gone.

There’s two groups of developers that will still be able to cash in on the giant market that is the AppStore, those that were there first and were able to gain the fame that comes with being first in the market, and then there are those that have heaps of cash to toss into marketing campaigns. It’s nothing to cry about, it’s the reality of a free market economy. Eventually application saturation is going to make it more difficult to find hidden gems, and the developers of those hidden gems are going to be relying on some breaks just to meet their development bills.

I don’t want this to be all doom and gloom. There’s always a potential for profit, and there’s certainly enough talent making applications that we’ll still see amazing and insightful applications, but the days of immense, and immediate financial reward are long gone, until a new market comes along. *ahem*Tablet*ahem*

I have had three iPods in my life: the first generation iPod Mini, the fifth generation iPod, and the first generation iPod Touch. All three of them still work flawlessly, and do so after vigorous use. I have zero complaints as someone who has been using Apple’s media players for five years now. It is coming time for me to purchase my next media player, and there is no hesitation in my mind about going for another iPod. I just have to decide which one I want.

While the latest hardware revision of the iPod Touch is nice, it isn’t particularly compelling to those of us that already have a perfectly functional iPod Touch. The iPod Classic is fine, but I’m not a huge fan of moving parts sitting in my pocket. The shuffle is a sexy device, but it functions very poorly as a podcast interface. That leaves me with the fifth generation iPod Nano. I’m okay with that.

After looking around a bit, the sixteen gig model is available for only $165 on Amazon. That is $165 for a 2.2″ screen, a 640×480 video camera, an FM tuner, a solid state drive, and a time tested user interface. This, in my mind, is a great deal.

What are your thoughts? Any objections to the latest incarnation of the iPod Nano?
Photo Credit: stopnlook

One of the biggest complaints about the iPhone is the camera quality and even with the new and improved 3MP camera of the 3GS it seems that this feeling still stands. I have to say I wholeheartedly disagree with that sentiment because not only I believe the iPhone’s camera has a lot of hidden potential but also because there are numerous apps that unleash its true capabilities. Here are 5 of my favorite photography apps:

1. Photogene ($2.99) is basically a mini Photoshop for the iPhone and a must-have app, in my opinion. It comes with a full range of editing features like color correction, cropping, special effects and customized frames and when you’re done you can email your photos from the app itself. This application is very intuitive and makes it extremely easy to edit your photos and have some fun with some of the silly frames and text bubbles included.

Similar apps: PhotoForge

2. Camera Genius ($1.99) expands the iPhone’s camera capabilities with quite a few options that help you take better control of how you take your shots: timer, digital zoom, anti-shake (very useful for taking better pictures in the dark), alignment guides and even location and timestamps. But one of my favorite features is probably that the Camera Genius saves your pictures in the background so that you can immediately start snapping, without having to wait for each picture to save, like with the standard camera app.

Similar apps: Night Camera, Darkroom Premium

3. Panorama ($9.99) makes it very easy to take beautiful panoramic photos by overlapping your shots so that you can align them properly. The app then stitches all of your shots together, while doing some adjusting to make everything seamless, and outputs them full size creating breathtaking landscapes that will be sure to impress your family and friends.

Similar apps: Pano, AutoStitch

4. The Best Camera ($2.99) is one of the elements of the three part eco-system (the app, the book and the community) based on the concept “The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You™” created by renowned photographer Chase Jarvis. The app includes a set of gorgeous filters that you can apply and reorder to your heart’s desire to get the best possible effect. When you’re done you can share your creation on Facebook, Twitter or with the online Best Cam community. For some inspiration you can check out the book, a beautiful celebration of iPhone photography.

5. Perfectly Clear ($2.99) is a great app to get your photos clearer and brighter with just a touch of a button. The app applies a number of automatic corrections to your pictures making them look more vibrant and it lets you easily compare the the results by seeing the “before” and “after” side to side. If you’re still not perfectly happy with the results you can then adjust all the parameters yourself and make sure you get your photos looking perfect. The fact that you can get gorgeous results so effortless makes this app a winner for me.

Do you know any other good photography apps not listed here? Let me know in the comments.