13 Hours Until the Jesus Tablet

Published on January 26th, 2010 View Comments

Tomorrow is going to be a challenge trying to figure out who’s getting my attention.  At noon Larry is going to be revealing the strategy for the Sun acquisition here, and Steve will be releasing his new world saving device the Jesus tablet. I’m sure Larry’s 5 hour presentation tomorrow is going to be riveting, [...]

There’s an App for That?

Published on August 12th, 2009 View Comments

Another interesting tidbit from earlier in the week, also forwarded to me by tipster Chet, was an announcement (h/t TUAW) from USAA, a privately held bank and insurance company.
Surprising, since bank’s haven’t been getting a lot of good ink lately.
USAA plans to update their iPhone mobile banking app to allow certain customers to deposit [...]

Using the iPhone for Gaming?

Published on July 2nd, 2009 View Comments

I never expected my iPhone would be a gaming device.
Earlier this week, as I did my civic duty, I found myself bored to tears in a jury room, waiting to be called. It was actually a bit funny. The day started with a video about jury service, including interviews where jurors said they were excited [...]

The Future of Mobile: WebVisions 2009

Published on May 25th, 2009 View Comments

Last Thursday and Friday, I attended the 2009 iteration of WebVisions, a conference held here in Portland focused on the future of web design and development.

As with last year, my goal for attending was to gain new design perspectives. Web design is constantly evolving, and we use many of the innovations present on the consumer [...]

The Future is Good Enough

Published on April 27th, 2009 View Comments

Chet suggested last week that I talk about what the future will look like. So, like a good blogger, I’m recycling someone else’s thoughts.
Not entirely a joke because I read this piece from PC World’s Linux Line shortly after Chet’s comment and immediately thought of his request.
Definitely worth a read, and I completely agree with [...]

I Might Pay for JotNot

Published on March 18th, 2009 View Comments

There are very few times when I read something and think to myself, I must blog this immediately and tell as many people as possible.
This is one of those few times.
JotNot is a web service that converts pictures into documents. Send a picture to them by email or upload one to their website and get [...]

Oracle People iPhone App Metrics

Published on February 24th, 2009 View Comments

Yesterday, I promised to share the Pinch Media metrics Clayton has collected for the Oracle People iPhone app.
Here’s a snapshot.

There are 30 new users since yesterday, which seems like a nice growth rate to me. Clayton mentioned over OraTweet yesterday that adoption was slower than he anticipated. Based on the comments left here and direct [...]

Pinch Media Releases iPhone App Stats

Published on February 23rd, 2009 View Comments

Pinch Media collects stats for iPhone apps, e.g. Clayton uses them to track usage statistics for the Oracle People Search app.
Last week, they released an analysis of apps that has some pretty interesting metrics. The one that caught my eye was that for free apps, only about 20% of users return to the app the [...]

Flickit: A Flickr iPhone App

Published on February 18th, 2009 View Comments

Finally. Flickit brings an easy to use Flickr uploader to my iPhone.
This has been a long time coming, and thanks to Rick for the 411.
People complain about the iPhone’s camera. It’s only 2 megapixels, it doesn’t take video without a jailbreak, etc. In spite of all its failings, did you know it’s easily the top [...]

The Oracle People iPhone App is Here

Published on February 4th, 2009 View Comments

With many thanks to Clayton Donley who built the app with help from Rich, Anthony and Noel, I give you the Oracle People iPhone app.
I’ve been teasing this app for nearly two week, and it’s finally approved and ready for general consumption. If you’re interested (and work for Oracle), drop a comment with your oracle.com [...]

Optimized for iPhone

Published on February 2nd, 2009 View Comments

Did you know that for quite some time now (months), this blog has been optimized for iPhone/iPod Touch and Android phone viewing?
Rich installed the WPtouch plugin what seems like years ago. I know, time has lost its meaning for me.
In the past, I rarely came here on my iPhone, forgetting we had this plugin installed, [...]

Connect’s Third Version Launches

Published on January 25th, 2009 View Comments

On Friday, Rich and Anthony updated Connect to what we’re calling 3.0, or that’s what I’m calling it.
The UI has changed from blue back to white, and the main navigation is now on the left, versus on the top. Maybe you recognize the UI; remember when we showed off some mockups back in August?

Other newish [...]

IPhone Apps for Units of Work

Published on December 23rd, 2008 View Comments

I found myself reading Floyd’s story about the Call a Cab iPhone app and nodding my head.
That was embarrassing, like when you find yourself silently agreeing with a presenter like a bobblehead, except there was no one around to agree with my agreement with Floyd.
Like I said, a bit embarrassing.
Anyway, Floyd’s experience reminded me of [...]

“Keep Your Barcode Scanner off My Merchandise”

Published on December 9th, 2008 View Comments

Update: I added quotation marks to the title, thinking that they might help convey the right impression, i.e. I do not support the heavy-handed approach to barcode scanners. I think that’s clear when you get through the post.
From my, “this will get really interesting” file, comes a story from ReadWriteWeb about retail stores and consumers using [...]

Visual Dial Looks Sweet

Published on December 8th, 2008 View Comments

Lately, I’ve got lots of thoughts about design swirling in my head, but while I collect them, here’s another homage to the iPhone crowd that likes to read here.
Visual Dial is an iPhone app that “lets you create custom Home Screen speed dial icons right from your iPhone photo album with a few, simple steps”. [...]

What Makes UI Good?

Published on December 4th, 2008 View Comments

Thanks to a comment from Terry on my post about locking your smart phone, I’ve been digging around looking for ways to make my beloved iPhone more secure.
Surprisingly or not, Apple has made it maddeningly difficult to even the simplest precautions.
Terry’s comment, which I read a bit hastily, mentions changing the root password on your [...]

Poll: Do You Lock Your Smart Phones?

Published on December 3rd, 2008 View Comments

Every IT department has this policy. If you have a work computer, you’re expected to password lock it when you leave it unattended.
This makes sense, and I’ve followed this practice for many years, for work and personal machines, including desktops. My wife switched to locking her desktop after our cats created a few random events [...]

Amazon iPhone App is Sweet

Published on December 3rd, 2008 View Comments

Last week, I told you about SnapTell Explorer and mentioned that it would be a great app for collecting and pricing your holiday gift and wish lists.
I also wondered why Amazon wasn’t doing this already.
Today, Amazon released an iPhone app that included Amazon Remembers, a feature close to what SnapTell Explorer does.
Use Amazon Remembers to [...]

An iPhone App Your Holiday Shopping and Wishlist

Published on November 24th, 2008 View Comments

Last week, I found a perfect iPhone app for the year-end holidays, thanks to Paul’s Google Reader Shared Items feed.
SnapTell Explorer (by way of Lifehacker) is a free app that works with the iPhone’s camera. Open the app and snap a picture of any DVD, CD, game or book cover.
SnapTell processes the image and returns [...]

Connect for Your iPhone

Published on November 21st, 2008 View Comments

As I teased earlier in the week, Rich has been cooking up Connect People Search for your iPhone. Last night, it went live.

This isn’t an iPhone app because, as we all know, there are a few issues preventing an app that requires behind the firewall access: 1) we can’t yet connect to VPN using the [...]

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