It works!!
News of the Day
First, and foremost, in the scheme of things it means nothing. I'm still working part-time for RealMac, I'm still doing the music college 'thang' and above all, I'm not going anywhere from here. Nothing's changing here. It's just adding to the mix of life. Want to see what my first post is about? Well I'll give you one guess. :)
U can haz LOLiPhone!1!
No more are we limited to LOLcatz, LOLruses or any other kind of LOL-animal (although the image above is clearly showing *some animal*). David Chartier and I decided the tubes needed a somewhat humorous look at the impending iThingy, and so LOLiPhone.com was born! We're accepting submissions too, so if you've got a OMG FTW AWSUM!1!! capped image to share, please head over to the site and let us know!
You can digg LOLiPhone.com here
Tumbling
You can subscribe via a new link I've added in the RSS links to this page (you'll need an RSS-detecting browser to see that), by clicking this link, or following the image below to the site. I've also now added a nifty RSS extending box that shows you the main feeds I have in the sidebar.nikf :: misc is 'stuff' collated from the tubes, but not fully blogged. a link blog. a quote blog. a whatever I find blog. enjoy
iPhone Mania
eBay has, for months, had links for iPhones that would be available. But now we go one better: the email address free_unlocked_apple_iphone@yahoo.com is being sold on eBay. Not even a case, iPhone or other accessory - a free Yahoo! email address. Somewhat more worrying is that it's actually selling, and currently going for $23.
"Can We Please Stop this Bullshit?"
There's been plenty of talk recently by the iPhone nay-sayers in the U.S. It's bizarre. If the iPhone delivers on its promises, I very much believe it will be one of the most successful products ever seen in the mobile industry. However, recently, there's been a heavy influence on not only US flamers, but also about the future of the product over this side of the pond. Let's look at some of the hit-grabbing stories that have been posted, admittedly to the rumour sites.
iPhone European roll-out 'may be delayed'
OK, so Apple's driving a hard deal. If they have a killer handset that delivers, unlike my crappy Nokia 6280 which fails even the basics, then they have every right to drive a hard deal. They'd be mad not to - remember, Apple knows what it'll take to make a successful product (unlike the networks, whose software is notorious for causing issues on phones) and they don't want to compromise that - there's too much at stake here. The networks love the idea of branding, simply for the sake of throwing a logo in your face, whereas Apple seems to care about creating a product that creates cachet purely through use and sublime coolness, not poorly implemented phone-based software. The mobile market is, at the moment, somewhat like the PC market in the late 90s. Everyone was starting to catch the licensing bug: Windows Mobile, Symbian are all licenced. Like a PC manufacturer loads a PC with trial software and money-making links, the networks then load the phones up with software that promotes their own content and services never mind the end-user nightmare that it causes. The iPhone is the mobile-market's Mac, not just in presence, but in spirit too - as you'd expect from Apple perhaps. Anyway, onto the next fodder:An Analyst for investment banking firm Piper Jaffray warned Wednesday that Apple’s European iPhone launch "may be delayed". Analyst Gene Munster claimed the planned European wide roll-out later this year may face problems. "European wireless carriers are citing strict terms of the partnership with Apple," Munster said. (Link)
Apple struggling to reach iPhone deal with European Carriers
"Several were adamant that they will never offer the iPhone." My oh my, that sounds awfully like the protestations about DRM-free music. And now that's not doing all that badly at the moment, is it? If ever there were such a fine example of analysts talking out of their rear-ends, this is it. For the record, I'd still buy an iPhone 'unlocked' or retail only (so long as it delivers on its promise), but sans Visual Voicemail, and any kind of network partnership, the end-user experience is hardly going to be what Apple desires it to be.[A] report, issued Monday, notes that wireless provider Orange should be a shoo-in for the iPhone contract in Europe as it's the only operator with significant EDGE coverage in the region. "But early indications are that Apple may be forced to go retail-only in Europe," wrote analyst Avi Greengart. Several European operators reportedly advised Greengart that they had spoken to Apple and found the company “unbelievably arrogant,” making demands that “simply cannot be justified, no matter how hot the product is.” "Several were adamant that they will never offer the iPhone," Greengart wrote. Therefore, he suggested in his report that "early indications are that Apple may be forced to go retail-only in Europe." (Link)
The incredible 'pick a network out at random' game
Just two days later, Shawn Wu claims Vodafone is the most likely partner, attributing this to the
Gotta love consistency."200 million subscriber base (compared to 61 million for AT&T, its USA partner), broad country coverage, and investment in advanced technologies make it a strong fit for Apple." (Link)
Now all this would be considered fair analysis, and the networks that apparently were so anti-iPhone would be justified. Were it not for the fact that there's considerable demand (already) for the iPhone - at least here in the UK. 56% of mobile users apparently know of the device, and perhaps more amazingly one of my technophobe female flat mate agreed to queue with me (whatever time) when I get my iPhone, purely on the basis of being shown the incredibly clever Calamari advert - the appeal of those ads is clearly far reaching. So what on earth will, over the next few months, persuade the networks that y'know, the iPhone IS a good idea?
Wait, Brits Actually Want an iPhone!?!
There's so very little to say about this - the facts speak for themselves about a product we still know fairly little about (although the day of dissection is coming upon us). Apple's done a fantastic job of educating us in their ways. What network wouldn't want a huge queue outside their store on launch day, or publicised shortages like the Wii's having (still)? AT&T is seemingly preparing for total pandemonium over one handset, and yet the European networks are not interested? Jesus. Despite being a music student, I'm clearly not the one in need of a Supply and Demand bootcamp.Research from mobile market analyst M:Metrics shows 56 per cent of UK mobile phone users are aware of the device, and a large proportion of them (30 per cent) also have a strong interest in buying one....Brits are more inclined to buy an expensive mobile as smart phones are twice as popular in the UK than in the US. (Link)
One final thought, almost, before I leave the tubes in peace for the night
The W950 may be a very competent handset. But to compare like-for-like, especially on an un-released product is somewhat unfair on the Sony. It lacks the Apple UI, UX and iTunes integration. It likely is more hasslesome to sync, and the fact that it's from Sony almost guarantees that some jackasses from their digital music efforts thought it'd be a mighty fine idea to include some kinda of terrible Windows app that Sony really shouldn't make, not to mention that it's probably had the network's finest* technicians add their own buggy software to try and create supposed extra value. But above all you have to remember this: having roughly the same feature set as an iPhone doesn't make it an iPhone, or an iPhone competitor.Sony Ericsson’s W950, he noted, has offered European consumers a touchscreen smartphone with 4GB flash memory and music and Web capabilities – plus UMTS – for nearly two years. (Link)
*Where by 'finest' I mean: most willing to toe to a company line of forcing a network's portal and branding into our faces at every possible moment.
Skitchin'
All the screenshots used on the RealMac forums recently, and here have been taken using Skitch and the tools it offers makes capturing screen images fun, intuitive, and hassle-free. It can, with a single click, upload the shots to either Flickr, FTP or the nifty mySkitch service and generates either the HTML code or the BBcode for the image regardless of where it's uploaded. Skitch, put very simply, is awesome. All singing, all dancing, it does exactly what I've dreamed a screenshot application would do. Perhaps that makes me a sad person, to dream about how a screenshot application uploads to the net, sings, dances and more But I just don't care: Skitch. Fucking. Rocks.
Highly perceptive readers might see something of interest in the above screenshot. Taken in Skitch. Of course. I do indeed have 200 invites to Skitch to give away, so if you want one, I'm going to play a little game. Send me something funny. Nothing gross. Something funny. If it makes me laugh, I'll trade it for a Skitch invite! Send things via the form here, or leave them in the comments.
"Wish I was there".... WWDC Keynote Kit
Tomorrow's the day folks. Seriously. I can't recall a year where I've been so excited about what a Stevenote holds in store for us (and I know nothing of what's instore, by the way!). So what can we do to celebrate? Well, short of getting on a plane, TUAW's got a few tips. But that's not going to quench our thirst for news - well, at least not mine. So I've prepared a few things for us non-San Francisco-bound folks to behold. Firstly, an iChat room. The name of it is: wishiwasthere. How to get there? Simple. Hit Apple + Shift + G and enter wishiwasthere in the box under 'AOL Instant Messanger'.
You'll also want to play Bingo, and check the time zones below for when you need to be awake / opening tabs discreetly / otherwise with us:
7:00AM - Hawaii
10:00AM - Pacific
11:00AM - Mountain
12:00PM - Central
1:00PM - Eastern
5:00PM - GMT
6:00PM - London
7:00PM - Paris
2:00AM - Tokyo (June 12th)
Now, finally, where on earth would you want to find yourself come coverage? Well. There's tonnes of sites out there offering coverage. So I've condensed 10 into a single Applescript launcher, and added a top icon from Florian over at CocoaGrove (merci beaucoup!) so all you need to do is put this baby in your dock and it'll open the 10 sites in your default browser. Please read this before running it!
Grab it by clicking the image above, and please, go see the rest of the (free!) icons at Cocoa Grove. One final link before I try and get off the WWDC Kool-aid - ReloadEvery. It's a server manager's nightmare (so please use responsibly) but it might be worth setting to refresh every say 30 seconds, in case you really want to be up to date. It requires Firefox / Bon Echo 2.0+. See you in the chat room from T-minus 60 minutes folks!
Update #1: A new prompt has been added to remind folks about the Safari tabs issue. If you want this new version, it's live on the servers now:
Update #2: We're also going to be live in irc.krono.net #wwdc (thanks Alec!)
Smart Block Ahoy!
Behold 'Twitterbox' (I thought Twitterblock would be a little predictable).
Here's the Smart Blocks UI. Because the documentation is included, I'd thought about not leaving any on the web, but here's a complete run down of UI to clarify things.
Block Title - This is the title that will appear at the top of the Twitterbox. So long as a username is entered in the box below it, it will link to your Twitter page. Otherwise it links to twitter.com
Twitter ID - This is NOT your username. Instead it's the 6-digit number found in your updates RSS feed. To find this out, go to twitter.com and however the RSS link in the bottom left:
Mine is 714033 (and you can follow me here on Twitter).
Username - is the bit you add to the twitter.com/ URL to get to your profile. Mine is nikf
# of Tweets - This is the number of Tweets you want to display. Note that it's intended to be 1 only (the CSS doesn't show bullets in lists) for simplicity. If you're wanting more than one, either play with the CSS that's in the block, or contact me.
Border - The colour you want the border
Border Width - The width of the desired border (no need to append px - it's done in the code by default). Putting 0 obviously gets you a borderless window.
Avatars!
I couldn't help but share this awesome new Support Ninja avatar designed for yours truly on the Realmac forums by Gavin 'JamFactory' Strange. Thanks, Gavin. It rocks - although my flat mates required an explanation that the heart is there to show that Support Ninjas love the product they support! Freaks.....
That Logo
Quite how they spend £400,000 coming up with it, I frankly have no idea. Then to create a video that has caused epileptic fits? No wonder Ken Livingstone has been quoted as saying:
I've been trying to think of what the logo reminds me of. And the closest I can think of is some Communist Soviet-Bloc event designed to imitate the olympics. It's the sort of thing you'd expect to see spray painted on the East German side of the Berlin wall, not trying to promote a world class sporting event. The BBC has got a series of reader-submitted logos too, which are well worth a look. I was all in favour of the Olympics coming to London. But I can't help but feel I'll be jetting off shortly before the games start to avoid being embarrassed. Even Fake Steve talks of how (Fake) Jonny Ive is embarrassed to be British. Talk of the universal thumbs down."I wouldn't pay him a penny for having made such a catastrophic mistake....Who would go into a firm like that again and ask them to do that work. This is a pretty basic thing."
As Nathan points out: Chicago 2016. That's how to to an Olympic logo.
See also "London, How do I Hate Thee? Let me Count the Ways 1,2... 2012" and David Chartier's labelling of the damn thing as "the graphic design equivalent of Barf on Road Kill Stew™"
Beached
Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot?!!! Fair Trade sand? From a Sand Farm? Beach sand, if my geography serves me correctly, is a natural resource that is not manufactured - in a farm or anywhere else. I'm all for Fair Trade chocolate and other goods, but the bold declaration of 'Fair Trade' sand twice in the article smells of Greenpeace / Fair Trade-appeasing marketing schmooze more than anything else. Lame."It is hoped to have 80 tonnes of 'Fair Trade' sand from the Bahamas.... The 'Fair Trade' sand will be imported from a sand farm in the Bahamas"
