The AppsLab

So, I lost my iPad a few weeks ago, left it in the seat pocket of an airplane. Yes, stupid Jake is stupid. I don’t expect to get it back, although I suppose it was lucky that the plane did not continue on to another destination, effectively lessening the hands into which it could have… Read More

Photoshop is one of those tools that has crept into the vernacular, so even if you’ve never used it, you probably understand that it alters the reality of photographs. If you have used Photoshop, you understand the full extent to which that’s true; Photoshop is truly a dark art, so much so that really awesome… Read More

Editor’s note: This is cross-posted from the Oracle WebCenter (@oraclewebcenter) blog for posterity. Stay tuned to that channel for more stories about social at Oracle. Peter’s (@peterreiser) tribute to SunSpace has inspired me to tell the story of Oracle Connect, Oracle’s internal social application. Social enterprise is all rage now, and this trend has grown out of… Read More

I don’t care what software you build or how you deploy it, the lessons and pitfalls described by Jason Fried in this post apply to you: SaaS: Change starts easy and then gets really hard Definitely worth a full read, but here’s a key nugget: In the traditional software world, new releases were bundled up… Read More

One of my areas to watch for 2012 was Health+Intertubes, and on that note, here comes Squid, the compression shirt that monitors and tracks your workouts. As a side note, compression is how cool people say Spandex. Squid looks a bit bulky, but the data it collects and the technology itself are very impressive. I… Read More

I’m glad someone finally pointed this out about the BYOD movement: Who Has Apples at Work? In Many Cases, It’s the Bosses (h/t Between the Lines) From my long-past days in IT, I remember the added pressure of supporting executives, regardless of what they were carrying. When it came to support, we jumped, e.g. I once… Read More

Well, this is interesting: Is it time to say goodbye to Siri? A few months ago, when I finally upgraded my wife’s OG iPhone, I initially bought the 4, but settled on the 4S because she thought Siri sounded useful and cool. I told her my opinion, basically that voice was a neat feature that no one… Read More

I suspect many people now take workcations, given how common tablets and smartphones are and how easy it has become to do work on the go, and similarly how hard it has become to disconnect from the internets. One trend I wholeheartedly endorse is the rise of the unplugged getaway, which is tougher (and pricier)… Read More

Attending an enterprisey conference means exchanging and collecting lots of business cards. I usually carry stickers, but somehow they’re not in my laptop bag anymore. Anyway, one guy I met decided to connect to me on LinkedIn, a brilliant reminder of that professional network that I’ve neglected over the last half decade. I’m really glad… Read More

Apple’s earnings noted a halo effect, a.k.a. as the iPhone as a gateway drug. Enterprise iPhone 4S activations spike, highlight Apple’s halo effect | ZDNet Since its release in 2007, the iPhone has served as the perfect gateway drug to other Apple products in the home. Apple is now seeing this among enterprise buyers too.… Read More

Over on the WebCenter (@oraclewebcenter) blog, Peter (@peterreiser) has a detailed look at the migration of SunSpace to WebCenter, definitely worth a look if you’re interested in what WebCenter can do. He even includes pictures of SunSpace communities on Chris’ (@cbales) Spaces iPhone app, which I personally love both as a go-to app and as… Read More

Last week, our own Christian Finn (@cfinn) gave a webcast called “Do More with Oracle WebCenter,” but if you missed it, don’t fret, there’s a recording. Check out the recap on the official WebCenter (@oraclewebcenter) blog: Do More with Oracle WebCenter: Expand Beyond Portals – Webcast Q

Aside from the official WebCenter blog (@oraclewebcenter), Peter’s blog (@peterreiser) and sometimes Matthias’ blog (@mprove), there are a bunch people out there in intertubes land writing about WebCenter. Here are a few good voices I’ve read recently, along with some that I’ve been reading for a while in no particular order: Yannick Ongena (@yannick_ongena) Andrejus Baranovskis (@andrejusb)… Read More

Here I am defending the Google TV remote again. To be clear, I’m talking about the Logitech Revue remote: Not the Sony one: First off, I have a Logitech Revue, which Google sent me after Google IO 2010. I like the idea of Google TV, and the latest bump to Honeycomb has cleaned up the… Read More

Peter (@peterreiser), one of my fellow WebCenter evangelists, shares the history of SunSpace, Sun’s internal community/Enterprise 2.0/social site, over on his blog. Sun was an early social adopter, and SunSpace was/is a very active community. I first met Peter a shortly after the Sun acquisition was announced. As social community managers, we shared tips and tricks,… Read More

Editor’s note: Here’s the third installment of WebCenter tips and tricks from Matthias Müller-Prove (@mprove). Check out the first two here. Tips’n’Tricks for WebCenter #3: How to display custom page titles in Spaces by Matthias Müller-Prove If people don’t know where they are in the web, they tend to get lost in cyberspace. This can be prevented… Read More

A couple years ago, I took on a geeky project, creating a WebCenter VM. The goal was to get WebCenter running so I could kick the tires and build something. It didn’t end well, thanks to a variety of factors, but one good thing that came of the effort was a conversation with Justin (@oracletechnet)… Read More

Editor’s note: New friend of the ‘Lab and former Sun guy Matthias Müller-Prove (@mprove) has posted the first two installments of his WebCenter Spaces tips and tricks. He initially posted these internally to Connect, which he uses as his internal blog, an unintentional feature we created a long time ago. Not so long ago, the… Read More

Before the New Year, I ran across two separate posts about free apps, and as with many of my posts, this coincidence got me thinking and writing. The first was by Dan Ariely (h/t Slashdot), who writes about economics and stuff, two of my favorite topics. Plus, he referenced a favorite Oatmeal comic of mine, which… Read More

Traditionally, I do end of the year and prediction posts. This year, I just haven’t had the energy, and by now, I’ve read too many predictions posts (and so have you) to convince anyone that these are my own thoughts. The well is poisoned. Predictions for 2012 tend to fall into either the can’t-miss or… Read More