We jettisoned Cox Cable Television (kept internet, for now). The only content we subscribe to now is Hulu Plus and Netflix.

Unfortunately, Apple TV doesn’t make it easy to search ONE place for content across all my services. That’s just plain stupid and not at all EASY (as Apple would have us believe their stuff inherently “is”). Um, yeah. If I want to find a show I do NOT want to have to type that into the three different search screens to determine IF it’s even available on Apple TV.

Hell, Google’s figured that out. One search input for all their platforms (web, news, YouTube, etc). Imagine if Apple highlighted content available on the other services we weren’t already subscribed to… Hey, Apple… that’s called an “UPSELL”. Your retail guys have this one figured out nicely. Have your people talk to their people.

Meanwhile, you are rapidly wearing out your welcome in my living room due to missing intuitive ease-of-use features.

For instance, why the hell can I not control my Apple TV with my iPad. No, not AirPlay! I want to be able to type on my iPad to my Apple TV screen. If I **can** do this, I apologize for not being able to find it on the App Store. Heh! Funny. ME apologizing to Apple for not being able to find something on THEIR App Store. Sick.

There are other annoying things about Apple TV too. For instance, why can’t I consolidate my accounts directly on the device? I’ve somehow managed to create two accounts. Let me merge them and keep my content under the one I prefer. Why can’t I rent something on my iPad and play it through to my TV or the other way around?

It’s at points like this when a company so overextends itself and takes it’s CUSTOMERS for granted that the house of cards begins to wobble precipitously. Hate seeing that happen at such a neat and special place as Apple. But, we’ve seen it happen at places like Disney before. Heck, it’s happened at Apple before! Fortunately, “The Suck” doesn’t have to last forever.

So, Merry Christmas from me to you… I’ve found a good number of the streams from within the various iTunes radio categories just for you conveniently linked below:

Snow FM Ireland (classic Christmas oldies, 128 kbps)
Classical 24/7 (classical instrumental Christmas muzak)
Big R Radio Christmas Classics (eclectic Christmas mix, 128 kbps)
Fresh Christmas (hodge podge of Christmas “hits”, 64 kbps)
Got Radio – Christmas Celebration (all-over-the-place XMas music, 64 kbps)
1.FM TM – Always Christmas (From around the world, 64 kbps)
Christmas – Sky.fm – (roll of the dice, ?? kbps)

These might work fine on iPhone and iPad (or not). I haven’t checked them yet. I have no clue how to get these “bookmarked” on AppleTV (don’t get me started on that line of griping). And, if I manage to get back to this post I may be able to add a few more before Santa’s big globe trotting spree.

Enjoy!

• I need a way to import a high quality greeting to my voicemail. Hardline dialing and recording a new greeting is NOT Apple-worthy. I don’t mind recoding to the Voice Memo app or on my Mac. I just ought to be able to import a sound file as my greeting dangit!
• I expect a way to SEND my voicemails to my iCloud account as email attachments. Or create a rule that does it automatically.
• I expect a way to FORWARD voicemails to other iOS devices as messages. I can send a picture/video via MMS… Why not a voicemail attachment?
• I expect a heckuva LOT more out of Siri. It’s more useless than the Maps app right now.
• Maps is borked. Now that Google Maps app is on the App Store… I’m going back to what works. Still love you Apple. Just need excellent Maps when I need a map.
• Something’s still not quite right about Contact sync between iPhone, Mac laptop and iCloud. I have duplicates of many contacts in the order of 19 to upwards of 30 of the same person. There needs to be a super easy way to purge duplicates. Contact management shouldn’t be this nasty a chore.
• Speaking of chores… Apple got the Notes app sync PERFECTLY across devices. It’s not broke. Don’t fix it. Replicate it’s success for the other devices.
• Facetime is such a great idea. I’ve tried and tried and tried to Facetime on our local wireless LAN. Each time it rings once (so I know the call is coming through) and then indicates I’m busy to the other devices. Needs to be easier.
• The new messaging works pretty swank too. Not sure how they’d improve it just now.
• Can we PLEASE just sync up our phones to Time Machine? Pretty please?
• Passbook is freakin awesome! A killer, kick ass kind of awesome. The world is ready (it just doesn’t know it yet).
• Airplay = way awesome.
• Safari “Reader Mode” is slick. Wish there was a way to make Siri read the content while I’m driving or otherwise occupied. That’s one thing I love about Alex on my Mac.
• Photo streams to my AppleTV is not quite as straight forward an intuitive as I would expect from Apple. Needs Improvement.
• Newsstand is a useless icon on my phone deck. Please, let me delete it or file it in another folder.
• Faxing from my phone should be a no brainer easier than anything to do.
• Finally, PRINTING. Guys. C’mon. Really? Printing is right up there with copy and paste. We’ve been doing this a long time. Why can’t we seem to get this right?

iOS is a super platform. So good in fact that in our household we’re getting device confused. I can’t tell you the number of times we’ve swiped our fingers across the screen of the laptop or the iMac. It’s silly really that we’ve become so accustomed to iOS that is’s bleeding over into how we interact with the other computers around us.

The iPhone wasn’t fully formed at birth. I don’t think we should expect the next-gen TV experience from Apple to be any different. So, when Engadget’s Lawler contemplates his navel over HDTV content deals… I can’t help but chuckle. We’ve been here before. He’ll, AC/DC is only just now joining iTunes. The Beatles didn’t come on until recently. Who the hell cares if Moonves is on board right this moment? Seriously!

We are very much headed toward a more tailored entertainment era. One where I can subscribe ala carte to whatever I want to consume. Radio. Books. Games. Video. I build what I see value in and then… Voila!

We’ve already chucked out Cox Cable. We are a purely AppleTV household. Apple, Netflix, Hulu and YouTube are our primary content portals now. We haven’t missed a beat. If anything we’re enjoying MORE of what we like in a time shifted kind of way. I don’t miss DVR. I don’t miss the cable bill and all the dumb ass fees that came along with.

My kids will never know a rotary phone or a tape based answering machine. They WILL think back on the day when we had that little box attached to the TV dad used to cuss at occasionally as a relic of days gone by. A simpler time. Funny to think in those terms.

They won’t give a rat’s behind if CBS was on board or not. There’s no shortage of content and its only going to get more crowded.

Where the problem is going to come is easily searching across all the available “streams”. It’s a serious pain in the ass to simultaneously search across Apple, Netflix, Hulu and YouTube on an Apple TV. I think it’s not possible today. So, to hear Jobs say, “We’ve nailed it.” Gives me hope their next big iteration of the interface addresses that sort of thing.

To change a Mac folder (or document icon)

1) In the Finder, click ONCE on the document or folder icon you want to copy.
2) Press cmd-i (for “get info”). An informational window should appear.
3) In this new informational window click ONCE on the icon you want to copy.
3) Press cmd-c (to “copy” the image to your clipboard).

Halfway there!

4) Close the informational window and click ONCE on the document or folder you want to change.
5) Press cmd-i. The familiar informational window should appear.
6) Click ONCE on the icon you want to change.
7) Press cmd-v (to “paste” the image from your clipboard).

The nice thing about this approach is if the SOURCE image has transparent spots (also known as an alpha channel) in it… it will carry through to the TARGET file/folder icon. If you already have an image on your clipboard you can simply follow the second half of the instructions above and voila!

Copying App Icons Into Photoshop Layers

There are times when you may want to create a picture with a clean icon in it. Copying and pasting the “get info” icon doesn’t quite cut it for Photoshop. Yes, the icon gets copied. Yes, you can paste it. But the alpha channel gets lost and your icon comes through with a white background on the same layer as the icon you wanted. That may not quite be what we intended. Not to worry though. There is a better way.

FYI: I’m using Photoshop CS5 and think this applies to older and newer versions but reserve the right to be wrong This is a little more involved of a process. The steps below are pretty straight forward. But, the video may be easier to follow for some. [Video added after the original posting] This procedure is for copying an APPLICATION ICON for use in an image editing app.

1) In the FINDER ctrl-click on the icon you want to copy. A contextual menu will pop up. Select “Show Package Contents”
2) A new folder will open and depending on the app you’ll see a “Contents” folder and maybe some others.
3) Open the “Contents” folder.
4) Inside that you’ll see a few more files. One of them will be a .icns file. Usually the one you’ll want is your App name + the icns suffix. For example: iDVD.icns
5) Open the .icns file with something like Preview.
6) There may be multiple “pages” to the icns file. Select the first page’s thumbnail.
7) Select “Export” from the FILE menu.
8) The format you want to export as is PNG and you definitely want the Alpha channel checked. Save it where you want and named as you like.
9) Now, simply open that file in your image editor.

You now have a super high resolution app icon with exceptionally crisp edges. Yes, you could have achieved something acceptably close with some of the image editing tools. But, this way you have edges every bit as good as the app author is using for their own purposes.

Web-based iCloud mail isn’t showing the last month or so of a certain VIP. Though my iPhone (latest rev of iOS) displays my VIP lists her properly. For reference this seems to only display properly on web back to early November. Then nothing in VIP newer than that displays correctly.

I’ve turned off all my rules based settings at iCloud.com.

I’ve double checked my iCloud contacts are set properly on iPhone settings.

I’ve removed all my VIPs and added them back slowly.

Nothing seems to have improved the iCloud VIP situation on the web-view of my email.

Any thoughts out there?

Now, when I say “app” I’m not drawing a distinction between iPhone, Android or Mac. I’m certainly not elevating one type of app over another either. If a web app rocks where a native app just didn’t cut it… Well, let’s call it what it is. I do genuinely like the idea of an App Store. With a few important (to me) exceptions.

App Stores as we understand them today are walled gardens for software that will only run on it’s particular flavor of device. That’s maybe not entirely necessary. It’s just the way it is. There are apps for other platforms I wish I had the ability to try out on my phone, tablet, tv. But the walled garden is impenetrable. I can’t get there from here. Meh. OK. Small gripe.

Discovery is a MUCH bigger problem though. If you’ve used iTunes much you’re probably familiar with it’s Ping function. It’s Apple’s recommendation engine. I don’t pretend to understand the logic or algorithms it uses to arrive at suggestions. Some are spot on. Others seem to come from left field. [I'm not that varied in my musical tastes Apple!] The genius behind Ping is it’s ability to summize my interests in content and hazard an intelligent guess at what else I might want to try out.

App Stores should do this. Now! I jettison more apps than I keep. Many of them are paid. But, they’re of no use to me and are easily discarded. I can’t thing of one I’ve plucked back from the grave. I would suggest to Apple… please, please, please… factor this into your next iteration of whatever Ping’ness you bring to the App Store. It should factor… they did NOT like THAT, but DID like THIS. Or more importantly did NOT keep THAT… Now, what apps have others installed (and kept) that are good candidates?

In this way your ratio of HITS v. misses is more appropriate.

Might I also suggest a better way of discovering WEB APPS! (Yes, Apple, I know there’s no 30% take for you in web apps…) But, helping to make my APPfliction complete I would hope you’d not turn a blind eye to the many non-native apps out there. Some are spectacularly good and rival the finer native apps on my devices. For whatever reason your staff stopped “picking” web apps in late 2010. Please, pick that ball back up and run with it!

A nifty device lands in our life in the form of a smartphone. One iteration after another it’s improved upon until we reach the intersections of dependence, need and technical capability. I’m of course talking about my iPhone and it’s current OS (version 5.1).

Siri intrigued me as a potential virtual private assistant. The concept is sound and the execution is promising. But, it’s also clear why Apple would label it “beta” at this point in time. It’s tantalizing to the point of leaving me wanting it to do more than it does (or perhaps is capable of at this time).

Point in case, Siri can handily manage my text messages plus respond to simply queries. Which is really quite nice. But, not particularly habit forming as texting just isn’t my cuppa. But, email IS my domain. There are so many things I’d have Siri do for me in the email department such as finding, reading, writing, responding, filing certain emails for me. Some would be routine such as notify me ONLY when an email from Alexander or Tania arrives and file it in the Important folder.

I know we’ll get there. But, as fast as technology is moving wouldn’t it be great to have Version 21.0 right out of the gate?

No Zach, the convergence of devices and platforms has been under way for a LONG time. Everyone WANTS a spot at the table. But, friend… Apple was the one to finally say “Here’s how it’s done. The table is now set.” Microsoft may come in and gorge themselves at the table. But, as you so eloquently CORRECT yourself throughout your screed… Apple brought us to the Post PC era. It’s up to Window (8 or 9 or 10…) or some other platform to beat the champ.

Point to something other than the Office platform (PC or Mac) that is pulling it’s weight at Microsoft. XBox? Bing? BingHoo? Can Microsoft even execute anymore? I wonder… I think Microsoft is precipitously close to ushering ITSELF out of the PC era and closely following Apple into newer, more fertile field. IMHO

No one is yet talking about who replaces COOK! Tim is a brilliant ops guy. Sure, he gets strategy. He’s helped drive it at Apple now for nearly a decade for crying out loud. The guy “gets it”. No question.

But, who becomes Apple’s next COO is really pretty important.

In fact, AAPL has several key executive jobs to fill. Serlet – Developer Relations. Johnson – Retail. Very quickly Tim Cook will have the opportunity – né the responsibility of hiring in his “Cabinet” to carry the ball for the next [several] years. So, are these internal young stars we’ve not seen much of yet? Are these people we’ll say… oh, yeah, that makes total sense? I’m betting we already know these people.

See, Apple has a University internally for continuity. They want everyone to know… Apple isn’t going to change too very much. We like them the way they are. They like them the way they are. So, sure, people come and go… even higher ups. Continuity and panic control were expected and factored for.

So, here’s the 64-bit question… Who is the Apple management dream team?

Something’s really niggling me about his return though… I just don’t see it happening. It’s time to wonder now… will Steve Jobs return to the office off this most recent medical leave? I love to think he’s coming back. If for no other reason than to tell us all he’s licked the sicknesses plaguing him. To see his home built. To see old and new friends enjoying their lives. To build his “one more thing” that we fall in love with all over again.

Tim Cook has done a MARVELOUS job of showing Wall Street he’s not only capable of running the business. But that he’s capable of LEADING the business too! Which, let’s admit it… we fan boys love Steve for his charisma and chutzpah as much as anything he’s done on the business savvy side of things. In Tim we have another LEADER. Someone who gets the gestalt of design, business, supply-side. Someone who’s had his fill of the kool-aid alongside us. He’s as much a fanboy as the rest of us. He’s one amazingly driven gentleman.

Will the existing leadership take hills for him should his day come? Hell yes. Will the legion fanboy hang on his every word? You know?… I believe we will. It may take some getting used to him. Getting to know him. What makes him tick. But, I think all our love for Steve will be transferrable to Apple’s next full-time CEO. And I honestly think that’s Tim Cook. Retention of the existing talent set will be crucial. Forstall, Cue, Schiller, Ive, ALL the hardware and retail leadership, Serlet… Man, what a phenomenal bench! and that’s just the top of mind crowd. The veeps and directors and engineers and evangelists that bust their humps to get all this magical stuff done. Again, if anyone has the leadership chops to keep the house that Steve built together… It’s Tim.

An Apple, Inc. without Steve is a lesser place. To be sure. But, the Apple we all know and love is chock full of Steve-inspired, Steve-vetted goodness for many years to come. And, there’s no one better than Tim Cook to see that legacy executed and ultimately built upon and surpassed. I can think of no more appropriate homage to Steve Jobs than to take Apple Inc to the next level under able adult supervision WHILE he’s still kicking.

My hope is the AAPL board will name a successor while Jobs has the steam to bless the new Don.

The Solio charger is pretty darned slick. I like the idea of having the ability to charge my phone in a pinch. Maybe I’m at a ball game. Maybe I’m on a picnic. Maybe I’m at the zoo. No, the REAL zoo… not my house. I can think of a hundred situations where having that extra little bit of juice could be handy. I’m constantly pushing the edge of my charge even though I routinely speed charge in the car. Adding the Solio to my backpack will make a ton of sense (once the sun returns to Oklahoma for a while).

This product is so super simple. Plug one end of the cable into the Solio and the other into your iDevice. Push the powerup button on the back of the Solio. Voila! You’re charging. Daylight required of course.

I, personally, wouldn’t use this everyday to charge my stuff up. It’s slower to charge than I’m accustomed to. And, it’s meant for good lighting conditions. No workie while I’m sleeping at night. But, there’s no denying it serves a great purpose and the green aspect is a definite feel good (even down to the packaging).

Disclosure: gWH!Z was supplied with a review unit only which was returned after evaluation. There was no compensation offered, paid or accepted for this review.

The dilemma for us is a little unique. Most of what we produce (locally aggregated store circulars) are fed today to the iPad only through the NATIVE client over http. So, we can afford to be agnostic in our approach forward at this point. We’re actually in a great position to deliver a web app experience that for the most part is consistent across all devices. And, I’m excited about that truth be told. The nice thing about the web apps route… EVERYONE has the same point version release. No lengthy delays for approvals. As it turns out these are compelling cases for choosing the web app route. The dilemma comes down to one of monetization.

Shoppers are paying for the “Store Circulars” app today via the iTunes App Store. It’s important to continue making revenue from the app. So, do we hook a web app into this new Google subscription doohicky and charge that way? I’m adamant that we’re NOT going to rely solely on advertising/sponsorship. CPM and CPX is all fine and good. But, having made my living by the fickle ups and downs that way a few times before. It’s not something I’m excited about doing again.

Conversely… do we remain on the native path? Supporting multiple platforms (even within the same OS). The emerging App Stores give us some super distribution and reach. But, with it comes the expense of some % of revenues that are split with the hosting App Store. Not to mention the ugly need to actually develop distinctly different apps for each of those platforms. I don’t dispute the value of what the App Stores provide or the % of revenues for each sold app they take. They earn it. No argument there.

The problems are compounding for app developers though… More platforms means we face more choices which ones to develop for and which ones we’ll forego.

It’s the reason I like the idea of wrapper software frameworks like PhoneGap. I’m not savvy enough yet to build a universal app from the ground up. I still hire out some parts of the app that are beyond me. Anything that gives me a leg up on building once and deploying across multiple platforms AND app stores… I’m going to like a lot. Even to the point that’s a pure web app.

Are you other mobile developers facing similar issues? How did you solve for your situation? And, of particular interest, how did you manage to monetize your apps?

This new law requires your (elected) state school boards to do something specific. Most comply but seven in your county don’t. In fact, they VOTE not to follow the law.

Scores of affected families get together and try mightily to persuade the districts to recognize what they’re doing is willful misconduct. These districts maintain what they’re doing is trying to figure out which law to follow – the constitution of the state or the recently passed law. State precedent is clear though – All state laws are considered constitutional until adjudged otherwise AND that only courts have the jurisdiction to adjudge in such a way.

At this point the school boards are dug in past the point of reasonable dialogue: They are intent on interpretting laws. The families recognize this can’t stand and sets a bad precedent.

The families float a little known, little used statute they call “Writs of Ouster” which simply requires a number of signatures equivalent of 1% of the last election for the office(s) in question or 15 signatures, whichever is higher. One such Writ of Ouster is filed against a district and immediately three of the districts rescind their positions because it’s certain the board members are personally responsible for their own legal fees. It has now become a personal liability the districts can’t cover. They’ve lost their shield.

Shortly thereafter the remaining four districts are told by the State Attorney General, “We’re taking similar action. You have four days to rescind your positions.” The boards do so. But, not without also belligerently voting to sue the Attorney General ASAP.

The parents have had enough of the rogue and defiant behavior of the district boards and file Writs of Ouster against them all.

At this point you have no idea what law these boards are objecting to. At this point you simply know they’re doing things they ought not be doing on principle alone. There is no legal position to support their actions. They’re simply rogue elected officials who won’t respond to reason.

Can you blame the parents for taking drastic measures to reel in their education system?

• You don’t buy a gAuto. It is strictly by referer only.
• Right off the bat, the gAuto is a stark white box. No visible seams, tires, nothing and only one very plain point of entry. Also worth noting, there are no Windows. Just lots of Chrome.
• Don’t be fooled. The gAuto is deceptively complex. Only PhD’s can tinker under the hood.
• The only known mechanic is one “Matt Cutts”. Identifiable by the “I’m not Matt Cutts” t-shirts he wears.
• On the inside is wraparound seating with one BigTable in the middle.
• The ignition starts with one of two buttons “Drive” or “Feeling Lucky” (I strongly suggest the “Drive” button for most occasions)
• The gAuto goes from stock still to your final destination (no matter how far) in 0.24 seconds. They’re constantly working on acceleration. (It’s the breaking they have a problem with.)
• The navigation is simply Voice activated. Arriving at your intended destination is dependent upon how specific you can be with your input.
• Insurance for your gAuto is provided on a daily basis by whoever has bid the most for the privilege.
• Traveling outside the magic triangle is discouraged.
• Don’t forget to plug your gAuto in at night… it’s an all-electric jalopy after all.
• Mileage is all relative.
• The Owner’s Manual is quite specific, “Objects in the mirror are nowhere as big as we are.”
• And, every gAuto has the same license plate: “B.E.T.A.”

So, let this be a warning to other PR folks out there… When I tell you I’m more interested in something specific (iPhone related kit or such) please just move on to better bloggers out there who can and will give you a fair review – the kind you’re looking for.

REVIEW

The DisplayPort to DVI Dual Link (USB powered) converter connects Displayport to DVI, HDMI and VGA at some rather impressive upper end resolution (2560 x 1600). I’d never know though: with my older MacBookPro I couldn’t muster the components necessary to put the unit through the paces. Despite asking the PR rep if I should simply send the unit back… I kept getting a persistent “Do you plan to review?” line of questioning. As if I hadn’t asked if I could send it back. So… here’s the nut of the review. It’s neither good nor bad because I couldn’t adequately test it.

On the PLUS side… the StarTech.com catalog is friggin AWESOME. You thought RadioShack had all the goodies? Oh no, my friend, StarTech carries some pretty exotic stuff that I’d wholeheartedly suggest you geek out to when you have a chance. (At least I found something positive to offer, right?)

1) Remove your existing printers via System Preferences.

2) Launch Applescript Editor

3) Cut and paste these two lines and then run the script (you’ll need your admin password):

do shell script "echo '# enable AirPrint

image/urf urf (0,UNIRAST<00>)' > /usr/share/cups/mime/airprint.types" with administrator privileges

4) You can either REBOOT your mac -or- you can kill the CUPSD process via Activity Monitor. It’ll revive itself after a few minutes. Your call.

5) Once CUPSD is running again you can re-add your printer(s) and then SHARE the one(s) you want via System Preferences.

And guess what!? You can now print from your iPad or your iPhone. Oh, hell YES!… you just did what Apple should have enabled from the get go. Congrats.

I’m taking a break from my normally technical blogging to begin the VOCAL OPPOSITION to any and all school districts who oppose The Nicole Henry Scholarship law (OK HB 3393). The Oklahoma Legislature passed a fantastic bill for special needs children (one of my children qualifies) and now the Jenks, Bixby, Broken Arrow and (perhaps my Tulsa) school systems are opposing it. WTF people!!! This further proves your interest isn’t aligned with the best interest of the children. Your interest is in alignment with the use of funds that are no longer in your control. And, you’re hiding behind constitutionality. I call BS!

Yes, I’m mad. I’m mad that you are suggesting the STATE doesn’t have the authority to appropriate funds as they see fit. It’s Law folks. It’s in the books. Get used to it. Can laws be overturned. Sure. Go ahead and challenge it. We’ll sue the school systems for DAMAGES.

You’ll find parents and private school administrators have cast a vote of no confidence in YOUR abilities to serve our childrens’ needs adequately.

You’ll also find these same parents are going to create a MASSIVE noise like none you’ve ever encountered. You’re about to pound sand in the worst possible way. You thought you’d make a grab for the cookie jar. Instead, you’re causing REAL damage to households and businesses across Oklahoma for which we WILL seek damages. Your net loss folks. Best wake up now.

You’ll also find your place is to EDUCATE our special needs children and not look at them as a way to obtain an inordinate amount of money per head to fund your special projects that have little to nothing to do with our special needs children. Go ahead and deny this happens. You’ll find yourself challenged on hundreds of fronts to PROVE every dollar was directed appropriately.

What you should be doing instead is barking at the State Legislature to STOP appropriating your highway and Lottery dollars and putting them toward other projects. That IS your’s. Go fight for it and stop picking on special needs children and the law that helps THEM.

Our children are NOT pawns and you’re about to get a big can of whoop ass poured all over you. You’ve let the hornets out of the nest and you’re not getting them back in.

Seems in Apple’s rush to market they didn’t live up to one of their own tennets – Openness. Even if it’s only cross-platform between their mobile OS and their desktop OS… that’s open enough for me. As is, FaceTime is too proprietary.

Perhaps Apple comes out with something in a future release of one or the other or both… For now I see a need and intend to fill the need. That will be done with FaceMeld. Stay tuned.

You go on this big screed about “open standards”. While…

In your other corner you have this wonderful but 1/2 forgotten platform called OSX (which was notably absent from this years WWDC by the way) which you graced with a pretty nice iChat protocol.

Now, why have TWO proprietary (ie. NOT open or otherwise known as CLOSED) Apple protocols when they could be made to work great together over public internet?

Is it because selling two iPhone4′s is that much better than giving us a little OSX/iOS cross-platform compatibility?

Is it because it’s planned to be an iOS5 feature?

Is it because it’s going to be melded into ONE protocol? Which one wins out? When?

Is it because you really have in mind to FINALLY come out with a Windows version of iChat that will work with Mac iChat and iOS FaceTime? (I’m full on delusional at this point to think this might happen)

Guys, it’s genius you have this FaceTime thing going on. But jeez Louise! Make your shiny new thing work with your other shiny things! Please?!

I’m sitting in a coffee shop one day grumbling to an acquaintance about my email address getting a ton more spam than usual and suspecting it was due to signing up for one of a dozen or more services recently. He said, “You should have appended your email address.”

Huh?

“Yeah, all you have to do is put a PLUS symbol after your actual email ID (but before the AT symbol) when you register for stuff and you’ll know who’s doing what with your email. If an email comes from someone unexpected with THAT appendage it was obtained… somehow… probably without your knowledge or consent.”

Bullshit! It couldn’t be THAT easy. I need a service or something to do this… I think those were my exact words to him.

“Oh, yes it is that easy and you don’t pay a penny to do it. Helps me figure out who I can trust and who I can’t. Try it.”

Hell if he wasn’t right (mostly). I’ve registered with a TON of third party services since as Gerald+SERVICEID@mydomainname.something… and it’s worked like a champ on my domain, on gmail but not on Dot Mac (or Mobile Me or whatever the hell they’re calling it this year… iMe?) Anyway, point being I’ve been able to isolate some offenders. I’ve been able to prioritize some actions based on the TO: field (AT&T, Apple, special vendors I really don’t want to miss messages from, etc).

Test it yourself. Not all email servers will behave with the + symbol in the ID area. If you send yourself a message with +TEST after your ID but before the @ symbol and it delivers… you’re in tall cotton. If it bounces your email server doesn’t play nice. Not sure why some do and some don’t. That’s just the breaks I guess. But, once you figure it out there are all sorts of things you can do from there. Have fun & spread it around.

If someone’s intent on doing you wrong they’ll be able to GREP that +TRACKING@ element out and THEN sell your information downstream. But, not all sleaze bags are that smart. Trust me, it’ll be eye opening and you won’t have to have a bunch of email addresses to keep up with.

- (BOOL)deviceCanMakePhoneCalls
{
    BOOL canMakePhoneCalls;
    if ([UIApplication instancesRespondToSelector:@selector(canOpenURL:)]) {
        // OS 3.0, so use canOpenURL
        UIApplication *app = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
        canMakePhoneCalls = ([app canOpenURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"tel:+44-1234-567890"]]);
    } else {
        // OS 2.x, so check for iPhone
        UIDevice *device = [UIDevice currentDevice];
        canMakePhoneCalls = ([device.model isEqualToString:@"iPhone"]);
    }
    return canMakePhoneCalls;
}

What this doesn’t do is show the button (or hide it). Now, if you know how to solve for any this more elegantly… please, do tell. AND… if you’d like to help me via ichat or Google Chat to walk through the Reachability issue… lemme know!

So, when the email came in asking me to review the i1015 Micro Case (for iPhone) I have to admit, my expectations were pretty lofty.

The GOOD
The i1015 seals TIGHT. So, if you work in a dusty environment or maybe a little bit wet/misty… this case might just do the trick for you. The lid is transparent to boot. There’s a handy jack outside that couples with the phone on the inside. While I haven’t tried this (and don’t recommend it by any stretch) I suspect the i1015 will float if dropped in a lake.

The BAD
What seems to be missing to me is a charging/peripheral slot. For instance, I might be on a boat (or sitting on the front porch when the neighbors sprinkler turns on). My phone should be able to charge while safely stowed away. There really aren’t any security features… It took my oldest (8 years old) less than a minute to open the box. All the other Pelican cases I’ve owned were lockable… I like the idea of being able to store my iPhone in a shock absorbing case, still use it AND charge it. So, that’s where my expectations were maybe too high.

The UGLY
I suspect there’s no way around the bulk. It just seems unnecessarily big in my opinion (about as big as the 3GS box my phone came in when I bought it).

I’ll probably give this unit to my neighbor across the street. He bought the iPhone on opening day just like I did and is an avid fisherman (taking his boat out regularly). Wouldn’t it be great to know his iPhone didn’t go down to Davy Jones’ locker because of the i1015. THAT would be one swell success story… Maybe he’ll toss HIS phone into the drink just cuz. If he does I’ll let you know all about it.

What I like about this app… it steps us through the programming and considerations behind 14 very different apps. Lots of different frameworks covered and the walk through behind the steps involved is quite good. It helped me get my app ready for App Store submission… Can’t give anything a higher recommendation than that!

I have a fairly substantial library of iPhone dev books and this one’s ing the top three I crack open on a regular basis… What’s also nice is all the source code for the apps is conveniently parked online and reasonably commented.

Definitely recommend ++

Those of you who know me realize I’m no developer despite these many years of being an Select member of the ADC. I’m barely a graphic designer (by my own standards). But, I can reverse engineer stuff be it code or whatever and obtain a passing understanding of things fairly quickly. So it has turned out to be with iPhone apps (web and native alike).

My first app has been submitted to and declined by Apple in the past couple weeks. It’s been a real trick to address the last of their two objections. But, I’m grateful the problem has been so hard for me to overcome… it’s forced me to explore nooks and crannies of the iPhone SDK I might never have stretched myself to investigate. My problem’s not yet solved… I’ll stick with it and perservere and in the process meet some fascinating people and methods in the process. And, reinvigorated my respect for these tiny little devices and the development platforms available for them.

Even if I never develop another app by my own hand I’ll have gained a first hand respect for the magic you adept developers weave and the magical tools Apple has made available to each and every one of us for free.

I’ll be honest and say, in my opinion, I still like the stock iPhone earbuds better overall. I tend to make handsfree calls while I’m driving and the noise cancelling mic on the Earpollution HAS been getting better feedback from people on the other end of my iPhone calls than the stock Apple earbuds. That’s really important. On my part, though, when I’m driving, I notice more noise from my environment (road noise, radio, etc) through the Earpollution buds. Which, for emergency vehicles… might be important too. The audio clarity and range seem to be about the same to me.

Amenities… The iFrogz box came with a variety of earbud cups to attach and I may have really odd shaped ears, I dunno. I never found a cup that created a nice seal. Your mileage may vary.

They also have the ability to control your iPhone with an inline clicker.

Let’s say you’ve lost or damaged your stock iPhone earbuds and are looking to replace them. The good news is there are decent options at a nice value point.

Snow Leopard unlimited server will cost $449 and ships at the same time.

Visit http://store.apple.com/ for more details.

Shay is one hard working guy and a new dad to boot. I’ll never know 1/3 of what he does about development. But, for $.99 I can hang with him feeling a little (okay, a LOT) more in the know than before. He’s packed over 475 cheat sheets for HTML, Rails, CSS, jQuery, Prototype, Obj C, testing, text editors, etc.

Get yourself some “CHEAT” today and support a super nice guy who created a super helpful app.

Hey, Shay… what do I do with all these little O’Reilly pocket guides now?

It’s free to play. It’s fun. And, there’s no telling where this thing is going. Right now, it’s a total rocket ship. I’ve checked for terms and conditions… there are none. So, seems we’re all clear to proceed. If you’re on the verge of quitting/abandoning your SpyMaster account… Please, consider wiring me your liquid assets balance. My Swiss Bank account is 000000027398 1153681740385

I was a good sport about a (successful) assassination attempt on my account (@GeraldBuckley) and was rewarded with a massive heaping of in game cash. I’m now set on in-game cash and basically continue playing just to level up and kick as much high-level booty as I can. It takes a LONG time to make enough to open a Swiss Bank account. However, once you have one (and I do) it’s trivial to wire money to other accounts and “open” them for the other player. Even $1 xferred would do the trick.

I’ve been wondering what I could possibly DO with all this excess in-game cash… and the entrepreneur in me has prevailed.

I’m selling it!

For $5USD I will happily wire $500K to your in-game Swiss Bank account. Because the Directorate has capped the amount of funds that can be transferred between two acounts I can send as much as $500K to as many accounts as I like. I accept PayPal (gerald@grocio.com) or TwitPay (@geraldbuckley) or Amazon Payments. Remember to include your ENTIRE Swiss Bank account number or the transfer will be delayed unnecessarily as I’ll have to email or DM you.

So, to recap:

• $5 USD via paypal, amazon payments, or twitpay for $500,000 in Spymaster funds
• I need your Swiss Banking # (you can either follow me and dm it or you can email it to me)

I’ve been on Twitter for a LONG time and have a terrific reputation. I work hard and I play hard. But, at the root of it all is an entrepreneur. ’nuff said there. You may want a little more proof-positive I have what I’m selling. So, a picture is worth a thousand words…

Not only do I feel listened to (due to the very cordial contact from Mr. Ron Okamoto & the last open letter) but the recent decision to go forward with the Snow Leopard Developer Forum is a VERY welcome move. I’ve logged in and looked at the lay of the land and by the looks of it I’m most definitely not alone. LOTS of healthy participation going on.

Thanks again.

Very sincerely yours,

Gerald Buckley

Click thru for the bigger pic. Just thought, given the insanely high pitch this topic is getting (maybe rightly so, I dunno) it might be fun to put a little levity into it if possible. Certainly not something a parent would like seeing happen right about now. On any other day it’s just funny or gross. Today…? You decide.

And, our buddies at DivX have graciously done it again and given us 100 DivX Pro (Yes… PRO!) serials.

These are for Mac only folks (this is a Mac-only blog except for the frequent jabbing at the “have-nots” I do for sport).

HERE’S HOW YOU SCORE THE HOTTEST NEW SERIAL NUMBER AROUND..

1) Follow me at Twitter. I’m @GeraldBuckley

2) message me by tweeting ”RT Follow @geraldbuckley He’s giving out 100 FREE DivX7 Pro serial numbers for Mac” Copy it and paste it… unless you’re on iPhone (boo!)

If you don’t follow me I can’t DM you the serial number. You have to do BOTH to score the SN. And, YES, I *will* be following you back

It’s taken about 5 months to rack up each of the last couple of 100,000 marks. Lately I’ve been spending the majority of my time on my startup and on some of the other social networking sites and less time writing. Once the Snow Leopard release arrives I’ll have MUCH more to blog about.

The “Installing Leopard from DMG” post is by far the most popular post here.

The “Open Letter to Tim Cook” post resulted in an interesting conversation I can only write about AFTER a certain something happens. And, of ALL the 1,100 posts to date… it’s the one post I’m most proud of. And, before too long, you’ll see why: I’m told it’s going to manifest in a major announcement out of Cupertino.

Finally, ALL of the comments and commenters are so very appreciated. Keep ‘em coming.

Seems it’s invite only and they’re hard as hen’s teeth to get right now. Even if you have a Grand Central account it’s not switched over just yet and an invite is still required. Follow @GoogleVoice at Twitter or read the blog for more details.

<< Google Voice Blog: Moving to Google Voice! >>

One thing that ROYALLY blows my mind though is ZFS. As Leopard was coming out there was a hint that ZFS was going to be a staple in the release candidate. For whatever reason that didn’t happen. It appeared all so briefly in one of the Leopard seeds in the Disk Utility app. So, being the good little Apple dev I am… I put that baby to the test. I strung several external drives (of differing makes and capacities) together and formatted them ZFS. Damned if it didn’t work as advertised. But, what really screwed with my noodle was when I added a fresh drive to the mix… adding it to the ZFS volume was super easy and slick as hell. Why isn’t that available RFN? I dunno. But, I liked it and hope it comes back. SOON!

Now, imagine if all the above was all done on SSD drives. Holy crap! At that point you have a highly scalable VERY small footprint array of some formidable scale and wicked fast speed. Not sure what the power consumption looks like. I have to think it’s much improved per Gb pushed/pulled. I’m all for cloud computing and things like Amazon’s S3. But, if I had a read/write intensive, mission critical app and could address it with a local SSD array… WOW!

Mr. Cook -

As an Apple Developer in good standing for several years I have hoped for an online venue whereby we select & premiere ADC members could freely exchange methods, best practices and work arounds.

But that hasn’t happened.

We’re expected to abide by our NDAs. Which means innovating for things like Snow Leopard either happens at WWDC or have to wait until after launch.

Isn’t there a sanctioned way to do this?!

I don’t mind trying to learn & innovate while under observation. The give and take can only HELP solidify developers’ affinity to Apple. As is a lot of this is happening outside of view of Apple and at the cost of the platform.

Gerald Buckley
(918) 813-9745
geraldb28@me.com

An ideal outcome IMHO would be a discussions.apple.com type arena where Select and Premier ADC members could freely exchange ‘how to’ type info. Frankly, getting the web services up and functional in early versions of 10.5 Leopard were insanely hard. That is until a little more documentation came around. But, testing that stuff was central to what I wanted to contribute and, frankly, what the developer notes were asking for. Now, you tell me, how can I pitch in (while still honoring my NDA to Apple Developer Connection)? There is a LOT more good that could come out of a new, sanctioned “portal”/”exchange”/”marketplace” than any bad. Heck, I don’t mind paying a bit more for it. There are a ton of us who just can’t or won’t make it to WWDC regularly. And, it’s a shame the innovations that could be brought to market closer to the each launch of a new Apple OS have to lag for lack of a sanctioned/moderated place for Apple’s developers.

So, if you would please raise your voice in support of something like this I’d like to think we could usher in some fresh positive policy at Apple with regard to Developers. Or, at least let them know, we’re not above doing it ourselves in plain sight and in the pirate tradition of Cupertino. (There’s a warning shot across the bow sure to draw a cease and desist)

Next week I’ll be delivering a talk titled “A Tale of Two Founders” at the OpenBeta2 event in Oklahoma City. If you’ve ever thought of starting a business, let alone a dot com, I’m going to do something that gets me well outside my comfort zone (thanks for setting THAT bar so high Loic!) and takes us to a very transparent place about the good (lots), the bad (far and few) and the ugly (yes, there is broken glass occasionally) of my startup, Grocio.com. I’m going to deliver a no-holds-barred, up close and VERY personal, roll your sleeves up peek behind the curtain of a dot com startup determined to make it in Oklahoma. From being down to our last 87 cents to the threat of lawsuits to the highs of raising capital to weathering the media attention and a few forward looking statements that require me to invoke dirty words like “Sarbanes Oxley.” If you’re a VC or an angel investor with intentions of attending this talk please give me a heads up so I’ll at least know where the heckling is coming from and why.

TEASER

Grocio’s past week and a half has been… interesting. I’ll stop short of saying it was difficult. It wasn’t. Not particularly. It was a challenge of patience and discipline to not spontaneously combust. But, it wasn’t difficult. Clear as mud? And, it was this past week and a half that hatched the idea for this particular talk. There are maybe half a dozen people in the know of what the key peeps around Grocio had to go through last week. Who said ANYTHING about crime scene tape!? If you’re the least bit curious of a few of the highs and lows you’re in for as a startup… hot foot it to the OpenBeta2 web site and register to attend (7pm Thursday, March 12th, okcCoCo, 715 Hudson Ave, Oklahoma City).

I’ll be headed out of Tulsa shortly after 5 on Thursday. If you’d like a ride in the Startup Mobile I’ve lovingly named “Bootstrap” you’d do well to call “shotgun” quick. WARNING: I *do* drive fast (not kiding) and the Odwalla and RedBull will flow freely. Yes, I find bribing geeks to be very effective. If we don’t die a fiery death on the Turner Turnpike, we’ll be back to Tulsa around 1 am Friday morning.

Finally, I’m whoring hiring myself out quite a bit lately with speaking gigs, writing magazine articles and guest blogging. It’s something I find I like doing. If you need an irreverent (not to be confused with irrelevant) delivery to wake up your audience, call or text me at (918) 813-9745. You will advance straight to the head of the line if you’re offering a ride on a nuclear submarine, a tandem jump, a ride along with the Life Flight helicopter crew or a contract to publish my book “Rough Air Ahead”. You think I’m kidding!? No siree, I’m not. Those are top of my Bucket List and if I don’t bag them all by 1 am next Friday morning… I’m plain screwed.

I simply point to the continuing saga that is Flash (lite or otherwise) for iPhone.There are two possibilities here. It’s way down in the skunkworks and is getting some serious polish applied to it and we’ll see it when we see it. Which is classic Apple. OR (and this is more likely) there is something getting in the way – politics, technology, something and we’ll never know about it fully. Keep in mind Apple and Adobe have a love/hate relationship. For those of you not in the know just look at the business that is Adobe and you’ll see where their bread is buttered (hint: it ain’t the Mac platform and they tend to launch products on the Windows platform first). The love between these two companies is shallow and doesn’t run much deeper than the the thickness of the income statement.

Look. I own an iPhone. I was one of the masses on Day One. Still have that phone. Use it on a daily basis. It’s shortcomings are piling up though in light of the onslaught of feature rich alternates (Google Gears, non-Quicktime video, higher quality photo optics/zooming, copy/paste, not to mention bluetooth stereo, etc… the list is LONG). It’s an OK phone and a slick interface. But the arms race has heated up and it’s incumbent upon Apple (as the instigator) to maintain the high ground. I don’t think they have the balls to do what it takes to mature the platform fast enough to stay competitive in the long run. Even though they dropped “Computer” from their name… that’s what they remain. An OS and application company.

Folks, the reality distortion field has weakened greatly of late and Apple has a choice to make. Open up a bit or don’t. Tim Cook’s job is maybe a little easier should Jobs not come back. But, until that shadow is dealt with… I’m betting Apple doesn’t open the iPhone’s web browser fully and my declaration of BS stands for a while longer.