The AppsLab

If you thought this piece on the lies we’re told by volume and battery indicators, this will be up your alley. Behold, the Ubuntu 10.10 volume control. Anything strike you as odd? Maybe this is a subtle h/t to a certain number to which all volume controls aspire? For fun, I slide past 100%, and… Read More

Maybe you’ve heard of My6Sense (@my6sense), a newish mobile service that observes your Google Reader habits and serves up content that should interest you. If you read Louis Gray’s blog (@louisgray), you likely have, since he joined My6Sense last year. Anyway, Rich (@rmanalan) reminded me of My6Sense, which had gone on my list of apps… Read More

Interesting, but not all that surprising. The No. 1 Habit of Highly Creative People | zen habits People seek solitude instinctively when deep thought is required, and if you can make it work, telecommuting is an outstanding way to get the solitude your creative mind craves. Semi-related note, it’s a bit funny (not ha-ha) that… Read More

Editorial note: Here comes another guest post. This one comes from Ultan O’Broin (@ultan), a Director in the Oracle Applications User Experience Team, based in Dublin, Ireland. He’s worked in and around globalized applications and user assistance issues for nearly two decades. Check out his blog about user assistance and user experience. Enjoy. Lots of… Read More

At least one person (ahem, Gary) wanted to read my predictions for 2011. So, here we go. Let’s start by reviewing the 2010 edition. Here’s what I predicted: Reputation will be all the rage in 2010. Fail.  I did read that Twitter has an internal way to measure the weight of a user, and at… Read More

I usually put a fair amount of effort into recapping the year in all things AppsLab, but this year, I don’t really feel like it. Oh, and Rich (@rmanalan) accidentally nuked our Google Analytics data earlier in the year. No biggie, we don’t drive much traffic anyway. One interesting note is that my post about… Read More

Interesting to ponder the newish pay what you want model, which is pretty much a remix of shareware. Pay What You Want — a Sustainable Business Model? – Slashdot Radiohead tried this same model with their album In Rainbows back in 2007 with mixed results. I’d argue that software and music have much different perceived… Read More

I recently got a new work laptop, since my old one’s USB ports had started to go. I depend on USB to do backups and to run my KVM. Since the rise of the Macbook, I had hoped that the pointing device mess that exists on most non-Apple laptops had been simplified. Nope. Dell still… Read More

Let’s call it beernovation. Meet the BottomsUp draft beer pouring, erm dispensing, system. It fills the cup from bottom to top, greatly reducing the foam factor and therefore the overall pour time, leading to much faster beer enjoyment and sales. It’s pretty amazing stuff. The BottomsUp site has video of people pouring 44 and 56… Read More

Hey there, welcome back, assuming you weren’t reading over the holiday weekend. This post on three types of developers (or six depending) amused me greatly. It’s actually pretty accurate. Someone should pen a companion piece about the x types of IT people, another highly enjoyable topic. I suppose I should clarify that I consider myself… Read More

I continue slowly making my way through “The Design of Everyday Things” by Don Norman. Today, I hit an obvious point that speaks volumes toward why apps are finding such quick success: The difficult of dealing with novel situations is directly related to the number of possibilities. . . . If there is only one… Read More

Thinking about this subject a lot lately, what with ripping video to share and gearing up for the stretch run of the pregnancy. How much do you share about your children online? I know a couple friends who obfuscate their kids’ real names, but talk about them openly. Rich (@rmanalan) told me today he dialed… Read More

I’ve never been a video guy. I tried out a camcorder, but the video I took was jerky, upset-stomach-inducing stuff. I suppose this will change when I become a parent next year, but for now, my unborn daughter is giving me a crash course in video and copyright. We had a 4D ultrasound done recently,… Read More

You must have noticed the inaccurate behavior of your gas gauge, i.e. it’s full and empty for long stretches of time. The psychology behind why is interesting. How Does Your Gas Gauge Really Work? The imprecise nature of the gas gauge is something that has always struck me as odd. Different auto makers create different… Read More

Not surprisingly, it’s been quiet lately around the interwebs. I haven’t seen anything that seemed worthy of long form discussion in a couple days. If you can’t get enough of us, you can read what we read by following us on Twitter @theappslab, by subscribing to our Google Reader Shared Items (mine, Rich’s), or by… Read More

I can touch type. If you don’t know what I mean, you probably don’t touch type, and if you don’t touch type, you hunt-and-peck. I didn’t make up the terms so don’t get mad at me if you don’t like them. I’ve seen impossibly fast hunt-and-peck typing on a keyboard, and perhaps the greatest hnp… Read More

Interesting news, we met Harald at OOW back in September, and he showed some of the Cloud Office stuff, very cool, especially when you consider all the possible integration points. Oracle Announces Oracle Cloud Office and Oracle Open Office 3.3 (The Oracle Office Blog)

Chatting with Rich (@rmanalan) who got a Cr-48 last week, we meandered off onto Paul Buchheit’s commentary on Twitter and FriendFeed about Android vs. Chrome OS. ChromeOS has no purpose that isn’t better served by Android (perhaps with a few mods to support a non-touch display). This is a pretty common observation and an area… Read More

Rich (@rmanalan) mentioned earlier that he might get a NOOKcolor for himself. If you’re not familiar, the NOOKcolor is an Android device, recently rooted and now with Android Market access, essentially making it an Android tablet. Update: Why mod? If you can wait until January, you’ll get an official 2.2 update and the Android Market from… Read More

Sure, it’s pretty geeky, but if you like VMs, you’ll love the iOS and Android emulators that come packaged with the SDKs. Obviously, providing a way for a developer to test applications before deploying them is a must-have requirement for any SDK, and both the iOS and Android emulators (and others too) provide mobile emulators.… Read More