In beta-testing now, Rank’em lets you vote on favorite songs by your favorite artists, then shows aggregate ratings.
31
Dec
How-To: Replicating Coda’s Books Feature With Google Quick Search Box
Posted by: admin / Category: General
I recently made the switch to the newest version of the web development application Espresso. After having used Coda for all my previous web development needs, I’m naturally making some comparisons between the two. I’ll leave the blow by blow evaluation to others but thought it worth noting that the one feature I find myself really missing the most from Coda is the ability to quickly search through reference books. This surprised me a bit as I wouldn’t normally list this as a “killer feature” of Coda, but more than anything else I’ve found myself continuously cursing the lack of this option in Espresso.
Thinking others might be feeling the same way I quickly threw together this Google Quick Search Box plug-in (ZIP, 742kb) that will let you send searches to reference sources for HTML, CSS, JQuery, PHP, MySQL, Python, and WordPress. You can start the query by entering text directly into QSB or by selecting text within Espresso itself, or any other application for that matter.
It seems like a simple feature hardly worth mentioning but I’ve found that having the option to quickly check up on the details of a particular function, element, declaration, etc. is an essential part of the way I work. In Coda you can add your own reference books directly into the application associating each one with a particular code type, e.g. php, css, javascript.
While in the code editor you can then select some text and choose “Look Up in Reference Books” from the contextual menu which will execute a search at the associated reference source using the text as the query. Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks to this approach is that you can’t quickly send queries to more than one source for a given code type. Nevertheless, over time I’ve really become dependent on being able to run these quick lookups.
I figured the best way to close this gap in Espresso was by building a QSB plug-in. To install the plug-in just add the codex.hgs file into your ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Quick Search Box/PlugIns directory. Once installed you will need to restart QSB in order to access the new actions.
Once you have everything working, just add any text into QSB (don’t forget to prepend with a space) press “tab” to pivot to an action and select a codex to search. Typing “codex” will bring up all available sources or you can just type the name of a specific source, e.g. WordPress, JQuery, and so on. Once you have selected the codex to be searched, press return to send the query. Alternatively, you can also start by sending text to QSB from within Espresso, or whatever other editor you’re using, by selecting the appropriate bit of code and choosing “Send to Quick Search Box” from the services menu.
With the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words I recorded this quick video demonstrating the plug-in in action.
Now that I have quick access to all my reference books I think I’ll be switching over to Espresso full-time. I’d be interested in hearing if anyone else has recently made the switch to Espresso and if so what they’ve been missing the most.
31
Dec
Apple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store
Posted by: admin / Category: GeneralFiled under: Analysis / Opinion, App Store
It’s being reported by PC World that Apple has begun censoring iPhone applications that contain any reference to the Dalai Lama in the Chinese App Store. At least five applications that contain references to the Dalai Lama have been banned: three of the apps - Dalai Quotes [$.99, iTunes], Dalai Lama Quotes [$.99, iTunes], and Dalai Lama Prayerwheel [$.99, iTunes] - contain quotes by His Holiness, while a fourth, Paging Dalai Lama [free, iTunes] tells users where he is currently teaching. A fifth app called Nobel Laureates [$.99, iTunes], details information about all the Nobel Peace Prize winners since the prize began in 1895. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
If you don’t know much about the Dalai Lama, there’s a great documentary you should check out called 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama [iTunes]. The filmmaker poses some tough questions to the Dalai Lama about today’s world and the individual’s place in it, as well as presenting the viewer with an excellent biography of this remarkable man. In May of 2008 I had the honor of seeing the Dalai Lama speak in London. He’s a wonderful person with an infectious laugh (and he even sounds like Yoda - no joke, check out my videos here). If his laughter doesn’t win you over, perhaps the fact that he’s a spiritual leader who loves and embraces technology will.
It’s no secret that I’m very bullish on Apple [AAPL] stock. I’ve made money investing in it since 2003. But as a shareholder second and a human being first, Apple’s censorship sickens me. This is capitalism at its worst. It’s no mystery why Apple, along with many other tech companies, cave to China’s totalitarian demands: China has the largest population of consumers on the planet. Apple is gunning for many more than its existing 300,000-strong customer base of the 1.3 billion Chinese mobile handset market.
Now, I’m a realist. Apple’s move isn’t surprising. Though it’s publicly stood up for human rights in the past, Apple exists to sell products, and a billion people is a lot of cheddar. In Steve Jobs’ eyes, the goal of the company may be continued innovation (he may even be “the Dalai Lama of integration”), but there are plenty of money men at Apple and their number one concern is to grow the bottom line. China can add a lot to that bottom line. So it’s no surprise when Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller shrugs off Apple’s censorship with a “We continue to comply with local laws” jibe. Just go ahead and read that as “Not our problem. Anyway, do you know how much cheese is over there?”
But here’s where the real problem lies. I’m a hypocrite. Things won’t change until we do and I can’t really convey to you just how hard that is. If you’re a shareholder, as I am, you’re complicit in Apple’s and others decisions to cave to China (and capitalism) at the expense of human rights. I mean, I know I was downright giddy when I heard the news that Apple had come to an agreement with the Chinese government to sell the iPhone there. All I could think was ka-ching!
We may read (or in my case, write) opinion pieces like this and lament “Gosh, that censorship is just horrible” but then we look at the ten-, fifty-, one hundred-thousand, or even millions of dollars of Apple stock sitting in our brokerage accounts and think, “But, that’s my nest egg and I want to see that puppy grow. What’s the harm in five little apps being censored?”
The harm is this: that line of thinking doesn’t change the status quo. It doesn’t move the world forward. Our inaction is a form of complicity with Apple’s deliberate censorship. But, as long as we don’t experience the oppression first hand, what the shareholder wants will always outweigh the good of the individual - even if it’s 1.3 billion individuals. I’d like to believe that I think mindfully; that I’m strong enough morally to sell my Apple stock as a show of solidarity for the greater good… but am I? Are you?
We are all cogs in the wheel.
Still, it’s the end of the year, and I don’t want my last post of the first decade of the twenty-first century stopping on a depressing note. So, I’ll wish you all a Happy New Year now and leave you with this quote by the Dalai Lama (a quote which could easily apply to our conundrum):
“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”
TUAWApple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
31
Dec
Apple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store
Posted by: admin / Category: GeneralFiled under: Analysis / Opinion, App Store
It’s being reported by PC World that Apple has begun censoring iPhone applications that contain any reference to the Dalai Lama in the Chinese App Store. At least five applications that contain references to the Dalai Lama have been banned: three of the apps - Dalai Quotes [$.99, iTunes], Dalai Lama Quotes [$.99, iTunes], and Dalai Lama Prayerwheel [$.99, iTunes] - contain quotes by His Holiness, while a fourth, Paging Dalai Lama [free, iTunes] tells users where he is currently teaching. A fifth app called Nobel Laureates [$.99, iTunes], details information about all the Nobel Peace Prize winners since the prize began in 1895. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.
If you don’t know much about the Dalai Lama, there’s a great documentary you should check out called 10 Questions for the Dalai Lama [iTunes]. The filmmaker poses some tough questions to the Dalai Lama about today’s world and the individual’s place in it, as well as presenting the viewer with an excellent biography of this remarkable man. In May of 2008 I had the honor of seeing the Dalai Lama speak in London. He’s a wonderful person with an infectious laugh (and he even sounds like Yoda - no joke, check out my videos here). If his laughter doesn’t win you over, perhaps the fact that he’s a spiritual leader who loves and embraces technology will.
It’s no secret that I’m very bullish on Apple [AAPL] stock. I’ve made money investing in it since 2003. But as a shareholder second and a human being first, Apple’s censorship sickens me. This is capitalism at its worst. It’s no mystery why Apple, along with many other tech companies, cave to China’s totalitarian demands: China has the largest population of consumers on the planet. Apple is gunning for many more than its existing 300,000-strong customer base of the 1.3 billion Chinese mobile handset market.
Now, I’m a realist. Apple’s move isn’t surprising. Though it’s publicly stood up for human rights in the past, Apple exists to sell products, and a billion people is a lot of cheddar. In Steve Jobs’ eyes, the goal of the company may be continued innovation (he may even be “the Dalai Lama of integration”), but there are plenty of money men at Apple and their number one concern is to grow the bottom line. China can add a lot to that bottom line. So it’s no surprise when Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller shrugs off Apple’s censorship with a “We continue to comply with local laws” jibe. Just go ahead and read that as “Not our problem. Anyway, do you know how much cheese is over there?”
But here’s where the real problem lies. I’m a hypocrite. Things won’t change until we do and I can’t really convey to you just how hard that is. If you’re a shareholder, as I am, you’re complicit in Apple’s and others decisions to cave to China (and capitalism) at the expense of human rights. I mean, I know I was downright giddy when I heard the news that Apple had come to an agreement with the Chinese government to sell the iPhone there. All I could think was ka-ching!
We may read (or in my case, write) opinion pieces like this and lament “Gosh, that censorship is just horrible” but then we look at the ten-, fifty-, one hundred-thousand, or even millions of dollars of Apple stock sitting in our brokerage accounts and think, “But, that’s my nest egg and I want to see that puppy grow. What’s the harm in five little apps being censored?”
The harm is this: that line of thinking doesn’t change the status quo. It doesn’t move the world forward. Our inaction is a form of complicity with Apple’s deliberate censorship. But, as long as we don’t experience the oppression first hand, what the shareholder wants will always outweigh the good of the individual - even if it’s 1.3 billion individuals. I’d like to believe that I think mindfully; that I’m strong enough morally to sell my Apple stock as a show of solidarity for the greater good… but am I? Are you?
We are all cogs in the wheel.
Still, it’s the end of the year, and I don’t want my last post of the first decade of the twenty-first century stopping on a depressing note. So, I’ll wish you all a Happy New Year now and leave you with this quote by the Dalai Lama (a quote which could easily apply to our conundrum):
“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.”
TUAWApple, censorship, and cogs in the wheel: the Dalai Lama is expunged from Chinese App Store originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments
31
Dec
All landscape iPhone games should support 180-degree rotation
Posted by: admin / Category: General
I can understand why the default behaviour on most games is to rotate left: it’s probably more natural for right-handed users to quit the game by pressing the home button with their right hands, and the iPhone’s speakers won’t necessarily be blocked by your right hand as you play. However, it can be annoying to play games in this orientation with earphones on. I have to curve my left hand outward just to make room for the jack, and it’s so much easier to just flip the phone over and change orientation, so that the earphone jack is then behind my right index finger as I hold the device. I think this feature should be part of Landscape Gaming 101 for iPhone developers.
(…)
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31
Dec
Appolicious – Another App Recommendations App for iPhone
Posted by: admin / Category: General
Appolicious is another iPhone app that offers app recommendations and sets out to help you find good iPhone apps.
As the numbers of apps in the App Store grows to increasingly unreal sorts of numbers, the need for more and better ways to discover apps becomes more urgent – for us as users and for developers as well. In my book, any decent new method for getting app suggestions is very welcome, and Appolicious looks like it may fit the bill.
(…)
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© PatrickJ for Just Another iPhone Blog, 2009. |
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Yesterday I posted an article about the iFartaholic app. In it, I posted a screenshot from the App Store entry (a picture of Calvin from Calvin & Hobbes farting). I then pondered how Apple let such a blatant copyright violation get through.
Sometime afterward, the image was replaced by someone outside the JAiB team to a very NSFW picture. Unfortunately, we knew nothing about it until some shocked comments came in for moderation.
Just so you know, we consider ourselves to be a “family safe” blog. We do not review adult applications, and we certainly do not post images anything like the one that some of you came across in that post.
Obviously, we are reviewing the site’s security, reviewing logs, and taking all the necessary and proper actions to hopefully prevent a re-occurrence. The article has been removed in its entirety for the moment. If you would like to see the picture that was posted, here is the link to the app in the App Store.
However, for those of you who happened to come across the altered post, we apologize.
– Joe
© Joe T for Just Another iPhone Blog, 2009. |
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31
Dec
A New Year’s Resolution – Find My Ideal iPhone Note-taking Routine
Posted by: admin / Category: General
With well over 100,000 apps in the iPhone App Store now, it’s pretty rare to find that ‘there’s not an app for that’ when you think of things you need to do on the iPhone, or even in life in general. It is common though to find many apps that offer to do the same thing, and to struggle to find the one or ones that work best for you and your own habits and preferences.
Note-taking is an area where I think there are a number of good apps around – but it’s also one where I have several that I have used but where I still haven’t found a good ‘groove’, a routine workflow that feels like an ideal way to do things.
(…)
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Post tags: Evernote, iphone apps, iPhone note taking apps, iProRecorder, Notes Pro, Simplenote
On behalf of everyone here at TiPb, and the Smartphone Experts network, we wish you and yours a happy, healthy, peaceful, and prosperous 2010, filled with iPhone 4.0, iPhone HD, iPod touch HD, subscription TV, and iTablet goodness.
Happy — and app’y New Year!
This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
Happy New Year – Best Wishes for 2010 from TiPb!
On behalf of everyone here at TiPb, and the Smartphone Experts network, we wish you and yours a happy, healthy, peaceful, and prosperous 2010, filled with iPhone 4.0, iPhone HD, iPod touch HD, subscription TV, and iTablet goodness.
Happy — and app’y New Year!
This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.
Happy New Year – Best Wishes for 2010 from TiPb!
