Provisionally Untitled

What Apple needs to do now

Adam Greenfield on skeuomorphic iOS apps:

I want to use the strongest language here. This is a terribly disappointing renunciation of possibility on Apple’s part, a failure to articulate an interface-design vocabulary as “futuristic” as, and harmonious with, the formal vocabulary of the physical devices themselves. One of the deepest principles of interaction design I observe is that, except in special cases, the articulation of a user interface should suggest something of a device, service or application’s capabilities and affordances. This is clearly, thoroughly and intentionally undermined in Apple’s current suite of iOS offerings.

Amen.

Twitterrific 3: Less, but better

The pixel-pushers at the Iconfactory are betting on the big picture for their third iteration of the earliest Twitter app, building a holistic and consistent language on top of iOS and OS X. Back to basics and more determined than ever, they have executed with simplicity and elegance, reducing the app to its bare essentials. At a glance, it’s instantly familiar, but as soon as you tap through, the refinements start to shine.

Despite the fact that Twitter decided to officially jump on the App Store, discouraging a number of third-party devs, the North Carolinians dared to think different, and are now delivering the superior experience. I love it.

I’m really looking forward to the redesigned desktop version. Hats off to them, who make opinionated software.

Make Opinionated Software

37signals:

Your app should take sides

Some people argue software should be agnostic. They say it’s arrogant for developers to limit features or ignore feature requests. They say software should always be as flexible as possible.

We think that’s bullshit. The best software has a vision. The best software takes sides. When someone uses software, they’re not just looking for features, they’re looking for an approach. They’re looking for a vision. Decide what your vision is and run with it.

And remember, if they don’t like your vision there are plenty of other visions out there for people. Don’t go chasing people you’ll never make happy.

Via Mike Rundle.

This is not good.

Stewart Alsop:

The software is so bad that, for instance, when you open the phone app and click on search, there are multiple opportunities for the software to not respond or to respond incorrectly, which means that the phone is not useable unless you are starting intently at it and very, very patient about waiting for something to happen. If you want to search your contacts, you type the first letter and the phone will stop responding for 20-30 seconds. Don’t know why. If you keep typing ahead, you get no feedback about what you’re typing until the phone responds, and then you will likely have typed the wrong things so you have to start over again.

It’s all about the software not the hardware.

Via Daring Fireball.

Tweetie 2.1 is live. Includes the new retweet format, geotagging and more. You know what to do.

Chrome OS Demo. Google will continue changing the world.

Via Daring Fireball.

I just fell in love with WriteRoom.

Fraser Speirs back in 2007:

So there’s love and there’s business. And now there’s a new business in town: the business of making iPhone apps. Slightly lost in the brouhaha surrounding the SDK announcement was the fact that Apple has also, in effect, announced an iPod SDK due to the fact that the iPod touch runs OS X.

I’ll repeat that, in case you’re still not getting it: the most popular portable music device in the world, the one everyone has, the default choice, the cultural icon, the device which Apple sells millions of each quarter, the device which has previously been closed off to all but Capcom PopCap, EA and Nike now has an SDK.

Granted, not every iPod sold is an iPod touch and the installed base of OS X capable devices is still less than two million worldwide. I’m willing to speculate, though, that the OS X platform is the future of every iPod with a screen. They renamed the traditional iPod “classic” and the word “classic” has connotations in the Apple lexicon. You know what I’m talking about here. […]

The only scenario I hope I don’t see, except as a special offer, is the last one. [iPhone version bundled for free with the desktop app.] Possibly the worst business decision we could make as Mac developers is to devalue iPhone applications to the same level as Dashboard widgets.

Via the awesome devs behind Cultured Code in 2008, when they dived into Things touch.

Fraser warned about it two years ago, and Gruber called it last week, how will it turn out next year?

Alex Payne on his setup and on software

Bill Joy said at this year’s TED conference, “I’d argue today that we have incredibly powerful computers, but we don’t have very good software for them”. I’m of the same mind.

Hardware-wise, my current setup is a dream. I love having just one machine to look after, and I love that it’s both portable and powerful; my only wish would be for a workday’s worth of battery life. I can get decent network access nearly anywhere via HSDPA if Wi-Fi isn’t available. The Cinema Display lets me sprawl out. My ReadyNAS gives me a sense of security about my data. My iPhone lets me leave the house with just my keys, my wallet, a pair of headphones and this one little magical device that can connect me to anyone, direct me anywhere, and entertain me for days. It’s a good time for hardware.

Software is another story. I’m perpetually dissatisfied with my text editor, the tool I spend the most time with. OS X is the best Mac experience there’s ever been, but it’s hardly the best computing experience I can imagine. The iPhone is an incremental improvement, but I can’t accomplish the majority of my daily computing tasks on it comfortably.

I want to interact with my computer in a fundamentally different way. The desktop metaphor is dead; a generation of children have grown up never working with the physical objects that the virtual desktop represents. What I really want is a modernized Plan 9, a software platform that’s designed from the ground up for our networked, distributed world. If you try to placate me with the assertion that the Web is this new operating system I will become violent.

I want better software: more usable, more accessible, more open, more secure, more integrated, more seamless. I want a better software development experience. I want better programming languages with better development toolkits. Fundamentally, I want better abstractions for the same computation I can do today with all that lovely hardware.

I second this. If anything better came along, I’d switch in a heartbeat.

marco:

So it comes down to your needs. For me, my phone is a personal computer most of the time, and it’s occasionally used to make or receive phone calls. Most data is downloaded over WiFi, with occasional small transfers over the cellular network. Network flakiness hurts me less than device flakiness. For me, therefore, the device is much more important than the network, because I’m using the device much more than I’m using the network.

This is why my iPod touch is good enough. Actual phone calls are as modern as the term “smartphone” and I can’t lag behind software-wise. An iPhone in Costa Rica equals constant jail-breaking and unlocking, something I decided I wouldn’t waste my time on some time ago. Most people I know don’t get that it’s about the software platform not the hardware. Stay relevant, not fashionable.