Jeffrey Donenfeld

Category: Mobile

  • How To Generate Your Own Apple iOS 6 Passbook Passes

    How To Generate Your Own Apple iOS 6 Passbook Passes

    With Apple’s iOS6 launching today, there are a ton of new features people are exploring. One of my favorite new apps on iOS 6 is Passbook. Although Apple didn’t incorporate NFC capability into the new iPhone 5, I really don’t think it matters too much just now – thanks to Passbook.

    Passbook lets users manage their frequent flyer cards, club card, store cards, and I’m sure their credit cards and metro cards soon enough. Cards are communicated to merchants via scannable barcode – 1d or 2d which is displayed on the phone’s screen.

    To generate Passbook passes, it’s a relatively straightforward process. While most people will experience Passes in Passbook pushed from apps and sent in emails from airlines and the like, It’s actually possible to generate your own passes, using the new .pkpass mime type. Simply create a zip files with a few specific documents in it, and reference it with the new .pkpass mime type in a webpage or email, and boom, you’ve got a Passbook Pass!

    Here’s the files, as reported on GeeksWithBlogs.net:

    Passbook Pass Zip File Requirements
    icon.png
    icon@2x.png
    logo.png
    logo@2x.png
    manifest.json
    pass.json
    singature

    Too much to handle on your own? No problem, there’s naturally a generator for it. Head on over to iPass.PK and start whipping them up on your own.

    Like this blog post? SHARE it with your friends via Passbook! Just load up this blog post’s Passbook Pass, and show it to a friend with a QR Code reader app.

  • Notes from Mobile Monday NY – June

    Notes from Mobile Monday NY – June

    A few brief notes from tonight’s Mobile Monday talk, at the New York Times Center.

    Best practices in mobile media consumption

    • Asish Patel, Head of Social Media at VICE Media
      • Favorite app is Twitter. With native applications, the key factor is providing a utility that can’t be found elsewhere, such as on the mobile Web.
      • How to make your apps “sticky”. Vice is seeing a huge bounce rate on mobile web, and the way to keep users coming back is to provide true utility. With mobile web applications, the key is leveraging the device capabilities and engaging users.
      • Find out what the value is to the user first, and then invest in native technologies. User experience is key.
      • Most compelling function of native apps for media companies for the public is content curation – personalized content curation, such as Stumble Upon and Flipboard. Send me new content based on what I’m looking at.
      • On a similar note, NY Times reports of the Vice empire being close to getting lots of cash.
      • Windows doesnt take a back seat, but how much budget we allocate for it ens up being decided by the amount of people using it, and what their demographic is.
    • Dave Pinke, Product Manager, Conde Nast
      • Favorite app is “Post It” – tracking notifications for packages.
      • In creating an app vs a mobile website, you’re taking a hit in running through the app stores. Apple takes a cut of the app sales. Financial Times example – app was siphoning off too much cash, so FT made an HTML5 web app and it’s great.
      • Wonder whether NY Times
    • Bill Readden, Thomson-Reuters Digital
      • Favorite mobile app – Twitter. Especially for Reuters, such a large news orginization must be on it. Since Reuters and other large news orginizations are basically “twitter before twitter”, being on Twitter nowadays is super important.
      • Target voice for Reuters is to use mobile tools to empower content creators.
      • Native apps vs mobile web – mobile web is coming up, but there’s still a lot with just HTML. Strategically it makes sense to do web, but as far as UX goes, native apps are still important.
      • How do you take into consideration the various consumption scenarios of a user when developing a mobile app? iPhone is more of a quick snack, and iPad is more for long form experiences.
      • NOT the right time to design for Windows Mango / Windows 8. Windows Live Tiles not really importnat enough just yet. There is huge value in it, but we’re not there. “Meh”.

    IMG_0190

  • Enhanced iOS 6 Geofencing with Find my Friends and 3rd Party Apps

    Enhanced iOS 6 Geofencing with Find my Friends and 3rd Party Apps

    With Apple’s announcement of all of the great new features in iOS 6, there’s a newfound potential for even more pervasive Geofencing functionality.

    Previously, I wrote about how to set up geofencing in iOS 5 – and mentioned that it integrates seamlessly into both calendar and tasks. Now, there seems to be a few hints that this functionality will be further extended to 3rd party applications.

    iOS 6’s information sharing and social media capabilities are significantly extended – full Facebook integration, Twitter integration, and new API’s allowing access to user data. With this enhanced sharing, Apple is under increased pressure to protect users data. So, they’ve increased the number of explicit confirmations a user must go through to allow applications access to data. One of these authorizations is access to Reminders – which is basically the front-end for geofencing integration.

    Extended privacy controls in iOS 6

    Today, Apple rumor site Macrumors reported on the enhanced user permissions, and noted that the developer beta of iOS6 has in its release notes:

    In addition to location data, the system now asks the user’s permission before allowing third-party apps to access certain user data, including:

    – Contacts
    – Calendars
    – Reminders
    – Photo Library

    For contact, calendar, and reminder data, your app needs to be prepared to be denied access to these items and to adjust its behavior accordingly. If the user has not yet been prompted to allow access, the returned structure is valid but contains no records. If the user has denied access, the app receives a NULL value or no data. If the user grants permission to the app, the system subsequently notifies the app that it needs to reload or revert the data.

    So, does the fact that Apple is requiring permission to access Reminders data signify that soon 3rd party apps will be able to use the background geofencing service built into Reminders?

    Also of note, MacWorld reports that soon the “Find my Friends” app will be updated with Geofencing alerts – which I bet uses the same system geofencing service as Reminders. From MacWorld:

    According to Apple’s iOS 6 website, the company’s Find My Friends app is set to add a new geofencing notification system with iOS 6. This will let you set up an alert for any of your Find My Friends contacts; when they leave or arrive at a given location, you’ll receive an alert or banner notification.

    Also related, see Apple’s iOS 6 Website

    Find My Friends is a great way to share locations with friends and family.8 Those who share their locations with you appear on a map so you can quickly see where they are and what they’re up to. And with iOS 6, you can get location-based alerts — like when your kids leave school or arrive home. Find My Friends can also notify others about your location, so you can stay connected or keep track of the ones you love.

  • I Just Licensed a Photo of the Foursquare Team on Teleportd

    This week, shortly after taking and tweeting a picture of the production of a Foursquare video shoot, a team member from startum Teleportd reached out to me to license my photo, for further distribution. By following the link, I was presented with a mobile optimized, very simple workflow that allowed me to specify the rights to license the photo under, how much I wanted to be paid, and how I wanted to be paid. The entire proces took 1 minute.

    A bit more about Teleportd, from TechCrunch’s Crunchbase:

    More and more public content is posted and shared through photo sharing apps. Nevertheless public photos are not easily searchable. teleportd is a realtime photo search engine that aggregates public content from most mobile photos apps, makes sense of it and allows you to search for – and see – what is going on all over the world at any time. Either from its iPhone application launched today or the website https://teleportd.com, users can instantaneously access the live stream of photos being taken at a location or event of their choosing. Use cases can vary: a fashion show in NYC, a riot in the Middle east or bars down the street on a Saturday night… But the experience is always the same: a smooth stream of live photos that would you might otherwise never have seen.

    Teleportd’s tweet to me

    Teleportd tweet

    Teleportd – Live Photos from the Smartphone Generation.

  • Ark People Search in Beta – People Search Meets Social Network Ubiquity

    Ark People Search in Beta – People Search Meets Social Network Ubiquity

    Today TechCrunch reported on Ark People Search, which recently got funding through yCombinator. Combining multiple social networks and online datasources, Ark lets you search for anyone who has a presence on the internet – both via publicaly accessible data as well as private social network you have access too. And there’s really no better time for this. Hot on the heels of network-bridging social location mobile apps Banjo, Sonar, and Highlight launching, Ark is the desktop equivelent. Desktop users, not being use cases for hypermobile powered searches, can narrow down people search via a multitude of technical criteria.

    The next iteration of this, as I see it, is combining multi-network customized technical search with usercentric geofenced real time search to produce push notification when that one person who meets all of your search criteria is right down the block from ya. Wow.

    Find Everyone You Can’t Google Or Facebook With YC’s Ark People Search | TechCrunch.

  • Invasion of Omnisocial Geolocation Apps!

    Invasion of Omnisocial Geolocation Apps!

    With SXSW happening this week, the battle for app of the year begins. This year, I think the focus is going to be location aggrigating apps – apps that pull in geolocation data from multiple social networks, and combine them in a common map and feed. Here are a few top apps out there – some new, some old:

    • Highlight “Highlight helps you learn more about the people around you.  If someone standing near you also has Highlight, their profile will show up on your phone. You can see their name, photos of them, mutual friends, and anything else they have chosen to share. When you meet someone, Highlight helps you see what you have in common with them. And when you forget their name at a party a week later, Highlight helps you remember it. As you go about your day, Highlight runs quietly in the background, surfacing information about the people around you. If your friends are nearby, it will notify you. If someone interesting crosses your path, it will tell you more about them.”
    • Glancee “Explore the profiles of people nearby and be notified when somebody has common friends or mutual interests. Text or call, meet up for a coffee, and stay in touch. Create new, meaningful connections with new people just like you.”
    • Banjo “Banjo taps into the most popular social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Instagram and more, to provide a real time view of what’s happening anyplace, anytime. Our powerful friend alert technology lets you know when friends are nearby – even if they’re not on Banjo.”
    • Sonar “Ever walk into a room and wonder if you have anything in common with anyone there? Sonar shows you how you are connected to the people around you by analyzing your Foursquare, Facebook, and Twitter networks. … Sonar uses publicly available profile information to help you discover the connections you share with people nearby. Sonar lets you take your online identity offline and meet real people in real life.”
    • Blendr “Make new friends nearby with Blendr. Blendr is a location-based social network that uses your mobile device’s location based services (LBS) to help you discover new people around you. Featured in Apple’s Staff Favorites, Great Free Apps and New and Noteworthy, Blendr is the easiest way to connect with the world nearest you.”
    • Find Friends “Find My Friends allows you to easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Install this free app on your iOS 5 device and sign in with the Apple ID you use with iCloud. Adding a friend is easy – just send a request to see their location. Once your friend accepts using the Find My Friends app, you will then be able to see that friend’s location on a list or on a map. “
    • Snapr “Snapr ?’s iPhoneographers, over-sharers, and all social snaprers :) Use our service to broadcast your favorite moments, track the places you visit, and record the things you see. We bring people’s shots together by place and time and make it easy to keep track of your family and friends. You can link your account to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Foursquare and use Snapr as a social hub for sharing photos and meeting new people.”
    • Instabam “InstaBAM! is a photography application that finds photos that have been taken around your actual location on Instagram. Not only can you discover photos around where you are right now, you can also use the world map and find photos from anywhere on the globe – Hawaii? New York? London? Sydney? Just find your spot and drop the pin!”
  • Apps From SXSW So Far

    Apps From SXSW So Far


    Every year at South By Southwest, hundreds of new mobile apps are launched. Some succeed, some fail. Here’s apps I’ve heard about so far…

    • Clik – “Clik is the amazing YouTube remote that allows you to walk up to any screen with a browser, point your phone at it, and instantly take control. It’s a magical experience that you need to see to believe.” – Clik unveils 3 new mobile-to-smart TV apps at SXSW 2012
    • Intro – “INTRO helps grow your business network by making the right introductions for you. It matches you to the people nearby that you need to meet. INTRO also matches Freelancers to projects they have the right skills for. It’s the fastest and easiest way to find work. No more online applications, recruitment agents or list searching. And for Small Businesses, you’re matched to the best people for your project.”
    • EchoEcho – “echoecho helps you FIND YOUR FRIENDS, in seconds.
      In just two clicks, you can see where your friends are. Or tell them where you are. For free.”
    • Kismet – “Kismet is the best real-time, location-based social app for meeting new people. Whether you want friends or business contacts, Kismet tells you who you should be meeting and why, so you’ll never waste your time having another boring, dead-end conversation with the wrong person.”
    • GlassMap – “Glassmap is a simple, beautiful way to find out where your friends and family are. Use it to coordinate meetings and hangouts, keep track of loved ones, and serendipitously discover who’s around you. With elegant privacy controls, rock solid performance, free in-app chat messaging and more, Glassmap is the best location sharing app available today.”

  • Inside Social Apps 2012: Monetizing Social Games on Facebook: Today and Tomorrow

    Inside Social Apps 2012: Monetizing Social Games on Facebook: Today and Tomorrow

    Monetizing Social Games on Facebook: Today and Tomorrow

    Terry Angelos, Co-Founder and CPO, TrialPay
    Will Harbin, CEO, KIXEYE
    Lisa Marino, CEO, RockYou
    Rony Xu, CPO, Happy Elements

    With the requirement that Facebook Credits become the exclusive premium virtual currency in social games on Facebook starting last July, there was much debate in the developer community regarding what both the short and long term impact of the change would be on the health of the developer ecosystem. Now that developers have had six months of experience exclusively monetizing through Credits, what does the monetization roadmap hold for 2012? How will Credits evolve beyond its current form to meet the needs of social game and other digital media publishers? Find out what top developers think.

    • How’s Facebook credits working out for you? Will Harbin – It is what it is. Our original hypothesis is that it would makeup up for the 30% commission, but that hasn’t been true. Lisa Marino – From our perspective, it’s fair for Facebook to take their 30% share. The developers need to learn how to design around those kinds of executions, and to maximize what’s going on in your community.  Rony – We like credits, and see 10-20% higher revenue in our game, in the Taiwanese market. Consumers in Taiwan don’t like to connect their online banking accounts because of privacy concerns. People like prepaid cards. So using Facebook credits gives audiences confidence.
  • Inside Social Apps 2012: The Facebook Platform Roadmap

    Inside Social Apps 2012: The Facebook Platform Roadmap

    The Facebook Platform Roadmap in 2012

    Carl Sjogreen, Director, Product Management, Facebook

    Key Quote: “Facebook wants Open Graph to be a simple process for developers, so that the focus can be put on developing great apps.”

    • Three major areas we’re working on this year – Open Graph, Mobile, Games
    • Open Graph. Plays to two audiences. People who use facebook – for them, it’s a tool to use applications that are deeply integrated with facebook. It’s based on the belief that facebook is a tool to tell your story, both using media on and off facebook. We think that open graph has the potential to take a new class of apps and pull them into the facebook space.
    • Vision for how developers should consider open graph opportunities: One of the design centers of open graph is to allow people to build cool new experiences, easily, with deep integration to facebook. No independent channel optimization is necessary.
    • Going forward, there will still be ways to optimize open graph. But fundamentally the use case will move to more of an integrated app communication channel.
    • Facebook wants Open Graph to be a simple process for developers, so that the focus can be put on developing great apps.
    • Games is very important to facebook. They are the shining example of how social integration and design can be transformative to an industry, such as gaming. Games also drive reengagement.
  • Inside Social Apps 2012: Trends in Social Game Product Development

    Inside Social Apps 2012: Trends in Social Game Product Development

    Brief notes from sitting in on the “Trends in Social Game Product Development” panel at Inside Social Apps conference in San Francisco, CA.

    Trends in Social Game Product Development
    Brenda Garno Brathwaite, COO & Game Designer, Loot Drop, Inc.
    Bill Jackson, Creative Director, CastleVille, Zynga Dallas
    Sebastian Knutsson, Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder, King.com
    Mike Sego, CEO, Gaia Interactive

    While acquiring customers has become more expensive over the last couple of years, monetization rates from top developers have continued to substantially improve. Today, there are examples of developers large and small that are finding distribution, engagement, and monetization success, despite all the changes in the world of Facebook and social gaming over the last year. At the same time, genres and content are continuing to evolve with new mechanics and game play. How should developers be thinking about product development in 2012? Top developers will discuss.

    Inside Social Apps 2012 Conference

    •  Bill Jackson – Social is the next generation in gaming. Not a new direction, but the logical next step. I do believe there is an opportunity in the gaming space for networked, synchronous play. Right now the right game needs to come along that demands it. This is something that’s well developed in the console game space, but not yet very well seen in the social gaming realm. Also exciting is progressing the asynchronous play out there right now.
    • Mike Sego – Position that the only trend in game development is better graphics is wrong. The next step is naturally social. Lower cost to developing for social and mobile platforms – this allows for a much larger variety of games. Now, 3 developers working in a garage can open up a whole market of social and mobile. This is not as possible when you’re thinking only in terms of graphics and rendering improvements.  Building social features isn’t absolutely necessary for game development. It’s important to use social features appropriately, and use them to enhance the actual game, not just junk it up with social. Regarding synchnous play, I think the games that are most successful on Facebook are the games that mimic the usage pattern on Facebook – asynchronous. Games like Words With Friends work – people login and take their turn, and logoff – this is asynchronous.
    • Brenda Brathwaite – Now that we have this ridiculous culture of fast follow and mobile, games like parking wars and Farmville is possible.
    • Sebastian Knutsson – I see the the use of friends in the future of social development as moving more and more to collaborative gaming, and multiplayer gaming. I like Tetris Battles, organized and networked tournaments. Allowing people to connect with their friends is where it’s at.
    • What can we learn from Cow Clicker? Brenda – It distills down the core essence of a social game. The fact that it worked is a very interesting statement about the players. Burned to the ground in the Cowpocalypse. Ian would like to be known for something other than Cow Clicker.

    Related tweets:

  • Smartphone Walkie Talkie App Voxer Gets Reviewed on CNN

    Smartphone Walkie Talkie App Voxer Gets Reviewed on CNN

    Over the past few years I’ve been a user of iOS app Voxer. CEO Tom Katis is a friend of mine, and I’ve had a great time using the app through it’s successive generations and revisions. Lately, Voxer has been accelerating in its reach, and is now hitting the prime time, moving up the Apple App Store top 10 lists, and gaining a widespread global userbase.

    From Voxer’s website:

    “Voxer is a Walkie Talkie application for smartphones. Voxer lets you send instant audio, text and photo messages to your friends (one or more!). Messages stream live as you talk and your friends join you live or listen later.

    Voxer is available for iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android devices.”

    Recently, CNN did a feature on Voxer, going over the product’s usage and business model.

    Voxer Walkie Talkie App on CNN.

    I’ll be looking forward to using Voxer going forward, and to new versions of the app. Right now I think the actual conversation flow works well, but there’s a bit to be desired for the user list and friend discovery process.

    Download Voxer for free in the Apple App Store and Android Market.

  • Staying In Touch on Halloween with GroupMe

    Staying In Touch on Halloween with GroupMe

    This year for Halloween, a group of about 15 of us got together for a massive Halloween party crawl. With the crazy Snowtober 2011 snow storm in NYC, and the packed party schedule of 5 different parties across town, it was important that we all stayed in contact throughout the night – both to collaborate on our limo transportation, and to make sure nobody got stranded in the cold. To accomplish this, we revived a product that was launched at SXSW this past year – GroupMe. GroupMe is a group chat and text messaging service that allows groups of people to all text chat and teleconference with each other on their phones. The key feature with GroupMe is the cross-platform compatibility. For smart phones, there are GroupMe applications for both Android and iOS – allowing users to simply use the app to get into the chat room or conference call. However for other phone users, GroupMe will also push all group messages directly to the user via text message – allowing any modern cell phone to work. The utility of their applicaton has gained interest from big companies, too – recently it was announced that Skype is acquiring GroupMe.

    For me, the text message feature is the killer app. I use hundreds of text messages (and now iMessage too) per day, and know the iPhone text message interface well. Text messages usually get delivered to me on time, and new message notifications are built into the core of the phone. So, to be able to keep up with a group chat room directly via SMS, instead of needing to load up an application every time is a great feature. Even on the iPhone, I still tend to use GroupMe via SMS.

    photo.JPG

    For the next revision, I’d love to see GroupMe integrated in with Foursquare, so we can setup instant location based chat rooms with everyone checked in at a venue. Imaging the possibilities of that – both for social, and marketing applications. Foursquare, powered by Groupme and Skype, possibly coming soon?

    Anyway, GroupMe seemed to work well, and we all had a great Halloweenpocalypse. Thanks GroupMe!

  • How To Enable Geofenced Notifications in Apple iOS 5

    How To Enable Geofenced Notifications in Apple iOS 5


    Over the past few days after the release of iOS5, I’ve been eagerly trying to set up geofenced notifications. Previously I wrote about the release of geofencing in iOS5, and now I’ve had a bit of time to test geofenced notifications. It seems that the process is not quite as smooth as it could be, but finally I’ve gotten it to work.

    In my testing, it appears that the notifications will only work and sync correctly when using calendar and notifications with iCloud. You can’t use the notifications if you’re syncing your calendars only with Gmail or Exchange (like i usually do) – you must use iCloud for now.

    Here are the steps for getting geofencing notifications on iOS5 it working.

    1. Make sure your iCloud account is setup online, and enable the same iCloud account on your iPhone.
    2. Make sure that the notifications and calendars are syncing with iCloud on your iPhone.

      The iCloud services control panel in iOS5. Be sure calendars and reminders are turned on.

      3. (more…)

  • Apples’s iOS 5 Finally Adds Geofencing

    Apples’s iOS 5 Finally Adds Geofencing


    New post for iOS 6 – Geofencing in iOS 6
    ==
    As I’ve been discussing for literally years, the concept of “Geofencing” – creating virtual fences around geographic points in order to trigger certain events when the barrier is crossed – is getting ready to change the way we’re productive, and the way we run our days. By using geofencing, starter apps on mobile devices have allowed users to do things like automatically checking to FourSquare (as in the iOS app Mayormaker), and be notified when their friends are near. Now, with Apple’s iOS5 mobile device software update, Geofencing functionality is integrated at the core OS level. Calendar events and tasks can now be tagged with a location, and an action assigned when the user is near that particular location.

    I’ve been waiting for this feature for a long time, and I’m interested to see how it could improve my daily productivity, and eliminate backtracking as I go about my day. My iPhone 4 is actually in the process of updating to iOS5 now, so we’ll see how it actually works shortly.

    From Apple:

    Next time you think to yourself, “Don’t forget to…,” just pull out your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and jot it down. Reminders lets you organize your life in to-do lists — complete with due dates and locations. Say you need to remember to pick up milk during your next grocery trip. Since Reminders can be location based, you’ll get an alert as soon as you pull into the supermarket parking lot. Reminders also works with iCal, Outlook, and iCloud, so changes you make update automatically on all your devices and calendars.

    (more…)

  • Using oEmbed for Dynamic, Futureproof Embedded Videos and Photos

    Using oEmbed for Dynamic, Futureproof Embedded Videos and Photos

    When writing and maintaining the codebase of my website, I’ve always tried to adhere the the highest degree of code standards compliance, flexibility, compatibility, and future maintainability and relevance. I’ve kept the use of plugins to a minimum, and have made sure that as much site content as possible is optimillay visible without the use of any special plugin or embed option. As this site glides into the future, I want all of the content to remain accessible.

    When it comes to embedding media content on blog posts, there’s always a question of how to embed it most effectively. With YouTube, for example, should I use the flash embed code? iFrame embed code? Straight up HTML5 tags? What’s going to be the best for acessibility now, and into the future?

    I always try to answer this question with asking “what’s the most simple, straightforward way to do it”. Lately with video, that answer has been YouTube’s iFrame embed code. By using this embed code, I’m essentially creating a portal in my blog post over to YouTube, and then letting YouTube decide which is the best way to display the media – whether it’s their standard flash video player, or newer h.264 or WebM video players – or whatever else comes up in the future.
    (more…)

  • The Beginning of The End: Manhattan Subway Cellphone Service Goes Live on Tuesday

    The Beginning of The End: Manhattan Subway Cellphone Service Goes Live on Tuesday

    Sara Shaker from EveryBlock, thank you for alerting me to the beginning of the end as cell phone service is switched on in the NYC Subway.

    Starting tomorrow (Sept. 27th), four of the 271 subway platforms in New York City will have cell phone service and Wi-Fi. Subway platforms will have service, but the tunnels won’t, so you can’t really use your phone in between stops. As of now, this will only be available to those with AT&T and T-Mobile.

    These are the four subway stations where service will be available:
    C/E at 23rd St. and 8th Ave.
    A/C/E/L at 14th St. and 8th Ave.
    F/M/L at 14th St. and 6th Ave.
    1/2/3 at 14th St. and 7th Ave.

    This is a bit of a mixed blessing. Sure, it will be great to stay connected while endlessly waiting for the Q train at 4am on a Sunday Morning. But I believe one of the nice things about the subway is the brief respite from the constant hammering of your phone’s network connection. When you’re in the subway, you’re free from annoying text messages, calls, push notification, friend requests, and twitter mentions. It allows time to relax, regroup, and focus on other non-connected tasks. For me, this mainly consists of catching up on reading (albeit using the Instapaper iPhone app), and listening to podcasts and audiobooks (again, still on the iPhone). Now, as you’re able to get a more consistent internet connection in the subway, I think these brief moments of mandatory sanctuary will begin to fade. On the other side, it will be nice to be able to stay in touch while running late, and I’m sure that we’ll all get to overhear a decent amount of bizarrely interesting phone conversations – amongst the barrage of annoying ones.

    Possibly related: A photo I took in the Atlantic Avenue Subway Tunnel.

    Atlantic Ave Subway Flashlights

  • Switching from Backblaze to Crashplan: iOS Mobile App Seals The Deal

    Switching from Backblaze to Crashplan: iOS Mobile App Seals The Deal

    ** Hello! If you’re finding this page in your research of Crashplan Vs Backblaze, or Crashplan Vs Mozy, or any other services, please be sure to read my ongoing saga with Crashplan losing my entire backup archive. Cheers! **

    CrashPlan’s recent release of an iOS app solidifies my switch from Backblaze to Crashplan. Now, I can access all of my CrashPlan backed up files on my iPhone, making the service even more valuable.

    At this point, I’m still running both Backblaze and Crashplan, but as soon as I use CrashPlan’s seeding service and get all my files transferred to CrashPlan’s servers, I’m ditching Backblaze.

    Some thoughts on CrashPlan Vs. Backblaze:

    • Backblaze runs as a native osX app, and CrashPlan runs as a Java app – naturally i’d prefer a native app, but in using CrashPlan, I see no difference in performance. Backblaze is still better integrated into the system UI with the System Preferences and Menubar integration, but that’s not a dealbreaker for me.
    • Crashplan not only allows me to backup to their cloud service, but also to external hard drives, folders, and other friends computer. This functionality is great, and even allows them to provide a cloud storage seeding service, by way of the local hard drive backup feature, and efficient data de-duplication and cataloging systems.
    • CrashPlan offers me many more customization options – I can have it throttle down its bandwidth and CPU usage when I’m using the computer, and then throttle up when I step away. I can also set priorities and schedules.
    • The KILLER CrashPlan feature for me is unlimited data retention. If I backup an entire hard drive to CrashPlan, and then unplug it, the data will stay on CrashPlan’s servers indefinitely, provided I have it set to never erase data, and keep paid up on my account (which is inexpensive). This was the absolute most critical feature for me. No longer do I have to worry about going on the road with my laptop for months on end, and having the data backed up from my now unplugged external hard drives expunged from the backup service when the data presence timer times out after a month – which I believe happens with Backblaze.
    • CrashPlan is inexpensive – I paid for 4 years at a time, which makes it less than $3/month. Plus, if I cancel before those 4 years, they’ll give me a pro-rated refund. What more could I ask for?

    All Your Files, In Your Pocket – CrashPlan Mobile Apps | The Code 42 CrashPlan Blog.

  • Google Opens Up Chrome Web Store – Continuing The Move To Web-Apps

    Google Opens Up Chrome Web Store – Continuing The Move To Web-Apps

    Today it was announced at Google I/O that Google is taking the Chrome Web Store, it’s store for selling applications and modules to run in its Chrome Web Browser, worldwide. Additionally, Google is starting to add in-app purchases, and a flat fee for developers to sell products. This brings the Chrome Web Store even more in line with mainstream “app stores” like Apple’s iTunes Store and the Android Market.

    What this means for the industry is that web-apps are continuing to gain momentum towards mainstream use, and will continue to start to cut into the penetration of “installed” apps, in favor of “web-apps”. Google’s example was the newly announced Angry Birds for Chrome.

    Chrome’s whole concept and selling point is that all of its applications and functionality happens on the web browser and “in the cloud” – there’s no concept of a user really having installed apps, and everything that’s  done is synchronized across devices, and accessible anywhere. Additionally, most of the actual data processing that happens in an “app” is done offsite in the “cloud”.

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  • Presentation: Bryan Rieger on Rethinking the Mobile Web

    Presentation: Bryan Rieger on Rethinking the Mobile Web

    Brian Rieger, a designer at design and development firm Yiibu, has put together a great presentation on rethinking the mobile web, covering the current and future prospects for adaptave, accessible web development for desktop and mobile. The presentation by itself is great, but is even better when coupled directly with Yiibu’s main website. They’ve turned their site into a living example of the ideals and considerations that the presentation lays out, including adaptive css and media queries.

    Be sure to flip through the presentation, and then take a read of the full design concepts and background of the site.

    The approach
    The site is designed using (what is rapidly becoming known as) the ‘mobile first’ principle. Also incorporated are elements of responsive design.

    The base content and default presentation are mobile, and optimized for the very simplest devices first. We’ve defined this as ‘basic’ support.
    Devices with small screens and media query support are served an enhanced layout—and occasionally—more complex content. We’ve called this ‘mobile’.
    Finally, the layout and content are enhanced to reflect the ‘desktop’ context.
    On the first visit, the server checks for a ‘properties’ cookie containing specific browser ‘feature support’ results (obtained from tests carried out by a little bit of JavaScript). Devices that don’t supply a ‘properties’ cookie, or have JavaScript disabled are always served the basic version of the site.

    Rethinking the Mobile Web by Yiibu

    View more presentations from Bryan Rieger

  • Gartner Reports Android Up and Coming Fast…

    Gartner Reports Android Up and Coming Fast…

    Interesting new info from Gartner, with some major implications. For clients thinking about mobile launches, I think this means the focus may shift to cross-device compatible mobile websites, iOS apps, and importantly, Android Apps. When considering a global client, Nokia may be a consideration, but those platforms under considerations should be restricted to the Windows Phone platform, recently adopted by Nokia. Simbian, RIM are lagging.
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  • SXSW Panel – Moving the Web onto Mobile Devices

    SXSW Panel – Moving the Web onto Mobile Devices

    Panel – Moving the Web onto Mobile Devices

    Summary:
    Take a look at how the complexity of design has increased exponentially with the web moving onto today’s mobile devices. There are so many more considerations when thinking about a design or a campaign that go beyond the basic, “who is my target audience….how do I reach them?” Now it’s also, “what devices do they use…what browsers…..do I use Flash in my designs….what about HTML5?” Hear from a panel of industry experts about how they are dealing with these questions and what winning strategies they have found to be most successful for them.


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  • SXSW Solo – Web Anywhere: Mobile Optimisation With HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript

    Solo – Web Anywhere: Mobile Optimisation With HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript presented by Bruce Lawson, Web Evangelist, Opera Software

    Summary:
    Web apps, mobile phone apps, websites that work anywhere, SVG, HTML5, Widgets, location-aware sites, Media Queries. Beyond the buzzword assault is a revolution in the way sites are made, what they can do, and how they are accessed. We’re going to talk about what the buzzwords actually mean and how they all fit together. We’ll explore different methodologies for making websites that users can access on mobile phones and other devices, and how to optimize your existing website for mobile. Then we’ll put all the buzzwords together into a coherent vision that works now, with real code snippets that you can use right away. Finally, we get out our crystal balls out and look at what’s coming around the corner in HTML5 and the W3C APIs that allow websites to access native capabilities on devices.

    Bruce Lawson’s blog post and talk outline

    Talk Presentation on Slideshare

    Talk Presentation PDF
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  • Linking Foursquare With… My American Express Card?

    Linking Foursquare With… My American Express Card?

    Yes, it’s true, AMEX is doing a big promo with Foursquare for South by Southwest this year. Sign up and link your amex card with your Foursquare account, and get bonuses. That’s great for now, but is just a small first step in a much larger revolution – connecting our wallets together with our location, friends, and phones. Developments that may happen soon, as a result:

    • Check in to a location simply by paying with your linked credit card
    • Check in to a location simply by tapping your NFC-linked mobile phone, which is also linked to your location-feed account (Foursquare, Gowalla, etc), and also to your credit card
    • PAY for goods by checking in and authorizing a payment. Is Foursquare the next Visa?!
    • Pay for exclusive media content with your Foursquare account, and receive the download only when you are at the physical location. Bought tickets to that concert at Music Hall of Williamsburg with your AMEX? Check in when you get there, have Foursquare verify that you paid for tickets with your AMEX, and get a free download of the live concert recording, delivered over the 4G LTE network straight from the soundboard, as the curtains close.
    • Bond together and get crowd-based ad-hoc discounts, based on number of users checked in at a location. At the Apple store with 5 of your friends? How about if all 5 of you check in to the same venue, and all buy a new iPod, paying with your linked Foursquare-Paypal account, receive an instant 10% discount for everybody. Instant, location based crowdsourced Groupon anybody?

    Tabbed Out seems to be kicking off the trend:

    TabbedOut is a secure and easy-to-use mobile payment application that allows patrons to pay their bar or restaurant tab with a smart phone—no more handing over a credit card to a server or bartender or leaving a credit card at the bar after a night on the town.

  • QR Code Market Adoption Analysis

    QR Code Market Adoption Analysis

    Following up on my recent posts about QR Codes (All over NYC, used by Mini Cooper), JumpScan just published this informative infographic covering the history and impact of QR Codes.

    From Jumpscan, via Mashable