Well, I ran into my first JB problem. I installed IncarcerApp, which is supposed to let you turn off the home button at will - trying to iPad one-handed while feeding the baby, I often hit home by accident while holding the bezel.
I went in and turned it on... And my iPad promptly froze. I had to do a hard reboot (holding down both sleep and home buttons), but then I was able to go into cydia and remove the offender. No permanent damage! But it did remind me that I should really be backing up more often, especially before I install any JB apps that aren't well-known to be stable. But yeah, steer clear of IncarcerApp.
I do, however, have RetinaPad, SBSettings, Activator, BrowserChanger, and several other JB apps/tweaks running beautifully!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Saturday, July 23, 2011
Dun did it
My iPad 2 is officially jailbroken! Haven't installed much yet, but looking forward to things like RetinaPad, iFile, and whatever the one is that lets you put infinite app icons in each folder. Oh, also the one that takes away the lock screen! And maybe the SNES emulator....
Suggestions?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Suggestions?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, July 21, 2011
App Volume and B2B Purchasing
This is good news! Apple has finally put in a system for bulk app store discounts to businesses and educators. Why do I care? As I've mentioned, I am a grad student doing educational research - and my training extends to educational design. I have a few ideas for educational apps already knocking around in my head.
Interestingly, while the volume purchasing for businesses site includes the ability to design/buy custom B2B apps, nothing similar is offered for educators. This is a shame, since I could really see the utility of testing an app in limited classrooms before distributing it widely - exactly as curricula are often tested. Or designing apps for a particular educational setting (say a museum, zoo, or after school program) that would be useless elsewhere. I guess those will just languish in the app store.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Interestingly, while the volume purchasing for businesses site includes the ability to design/buy custom B2B apps, nothing similar is offered for educators. This is a shame, since I could really see the utility of testing an app in limited classrooms before distributing it widely - exactly as curricula are often tested. Or designing apps for a particular educational setting (say a museum, zoo, or after school program) that would be useless elsewhere. I guess those will just languish in the app store.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
G+ app - disappearing act - UPDATED
I didn't act fast enough today, and apparently missed out on the Google+ app!
The app was widely reported in the blogosphere to have gone up this morning, and even to have already received one update. But I guess the update wasn't enough to quell widespread reports of the app's instability and constant crashing, because it appears to have been pulled entirely. The app store links in these posts no longer work, and a search in the store for Google gives no love.
So perhaps it's best that I missed out, so that I didn't have to be frustrated by an app that just wasn't ready yet - but I sure hope they get it together and repost it soon!
Update: It seems that it wasn't pulled (although there are still stability complaints) - it's simply only available for iPhone (not even iPod touch), to the point that you can't even view it in the app store if you're on an iPad. Very odd, I wonder what it is about it that makes it not usable on the iPad unlike almost all other iPhone apps.
Therefore, the many headlines touting the arrival of an iOS app are wrong - this is iPhone-only, not for all of iOS. Eagerly awaiting the iPad version!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The app was widely reported in the blogosphere to have gone up this morning, and even to have already received one update. But I guess the update wasn't enough to quell widespread reports of the app's instability and constant crashing, because it appears to have been pulled entirely. The app store links in these posts no longer work, and a search in the store for Google gives no love.
So perhaps it's best that I missed out, so that I didn't have to be frustrated by an app that just wasn't ready yet - but I sure hope they get it together and repost it soon!
Update: It seems that it wasn't pulled (although there are still stability complaints) - it's simply only available for iPhone (not even iPod touch), to the point that you can't even view it in the app store if you're on an iPad. Very odd, I wonder what it is about it that makes it not usable on the iPad unlike almost all other iPhone apps.
Therefore, the many headlines touting the arrival of an iOS app are wrong - this is iPhone-only, not for all of iOS. Eagerly awaiting the iPad version!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Unimpressed with Google+ on the iPad
I can't wait to see what the G+ iPad app (supposedly just waiting for Apple's approval) looks like - because so far I am far from impressed with my browser experience.
The "mobile" version is ugly and clunky like most mobile websites, and also like most mobile versions, totally unnecessary given the ipad's screen real estate. Worse, it's hard to use - while the desktop version turns adding people to circles almost into a game, on mobile you have to edit each person's circles individually. Slow and tedious. There also does not seem to be any way to edit your profile on mobile.
Luckily, there is a link at the bottom to switch to desktop mode - unfortunately, there is no link back. Which is a pain because although desktop looks nicer and is better for many things, it won't let me type comments or posts! Plus, scrolling (two-fingered) on the circles screen is very awkward and difficult to achieve without accidentally selecting someone.
Overall, neither site works great on the iPad, and adding people to circles is particularly annoying no matter what. I sincerely hope that they show a better understanding of the affordances and constraints of the iPad UI in the design of their app - I'm worried that it will simply be a standalone version of the mobile site, as so many websites' unnecessary apps are.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The "mobile" version is ugly and clunky like most mobile websites, and also like most mobile versions, totally unnecessary given the ipad's screen real estate. Worse, it's hard to use - while the desktop version turns adding people to circles almost into a game, on mobile you have to edit each person's circles individually. Slow and tedious. There also does not seem to be any way to edit your profile on mobile.
Luckily, there is a link at the bottom to switch to desktop mode - unfortunately, there is no link back. Which is a pain because although desktop looks nicer and is better for many things, it won't let me type comments or posts! Plus, scrolling (two-fingered) on the circles screen is very awkward and difficult to achieve without accidentally selecting someone.
Overall, neither site works great on the iPad, and adding people to circles is particularly annoying no matter what. I sincerely hope that they show a better understanding of the affordances and constraints of the iPad UI in the design of their app - I'm worried that it will simply be a standalone version of the mobile site, as so many websites' unnecessary apps are.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Wish List - A Better App Store
Why is the App Store the most poorly-designed app on my iPad?
Among the problems:
No back button - I follow a link to an app from a web page. While in the store, I notice that I have updates, so without thinking I switch to the update screen. Crap! Now I have to go back to the web browser and click the link again to get back to the app I was checking out. This and a dozen other common scenarios would be far less annoying with a simple back button.
100,000 apps, 20 categories - Browsing by category is useless when there are tens of thousands of apps in each category, and no subcategories to divide them! I understand that when the app store launched on the iPhone, they had no idea what a runaway success it would be and these categories were probably sufficient for a while. But by the time the iPad launched, and certainly by a year later, they should have figured this out. I go into Education and the college economics study guides are right next to the ABCs apps! No subcategories for age/grade level or subject. What's even stranger is that games do have subcategories listed once you're on the game's page.... But this information is not used at all in the app store itself.
Limited and inconsistent sorting and filtering - Once you're in one of those categories with tens of thousands of apps, you get three options: sort by release date, name, or popularity. (Unless you're in the Games category; then your choices are only Featured or Release Date.) So if a really great app whose name starts with W was released several months ago and never caught on, it probably ever will because no one will ever see it. If you search, you can't sort but you can filter by paid/free, customer rating, and more. Why can't you sort within those filtered results? Why can't you filter within a category browse? Who knows! I guess that would just make it too easy to find what you want.
Leaving the app to download - This is just nonsensical. Every time you download an app - or even an update to an existing app - you're pushed out of the store. Because it is simply VITAL that you view the little "waiting" icon, amirite? And nobody wants to buy more than one app at a time!
Stupid Genius - I have yet to see the Genius recommend an app I actually want. Some of the recommendations seem totally random, unrelated to the app they're based on.
No zooming - As with their calendar app, Apple somehow completely forgot about those great multitouch gestures that they pioneered when designing the app store. No swiping between apps isn't such a problem, but no zoom? When the text is fairly tiny and the screenshots are miniscule?
The app store is both a major revenue stream in itself an a main driver of the popularity of iOS devices - you would think that Apple would want to make it as easy as possible to find and buy the apps you want. And yet it suffers from such basic usability problems that it seems to have been designed by a summer intern rather than Apple's famous software design team.
Did I miss your biggest app store pet peeve?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Among the problems:
No back button - I follow a link to an app from a web page. While in the store, I notice that I have updates, so without thinking I switch to the update screen. Crap! Now I have to go back to the web browser and click the link again to get back to the app I was checking out. This and a dozen other common scenarios would be far less annoying with a simple back button.
100,000 apps, 20 categories - Browsing by category is useless when there are tens of thousands of apps in each category, and no subcategories to divide them! I understand that when the app store launched on the iPhone, they had no idea what a runaway success it would be and these categories were probably sufficient for a while. But by the time the iPad launched, and certainly by a year later, they should have figured this out. I go into Education and the college economics study guides are right next to the ABCs apps! No subcategories for age/grade level or subject. What's even stranger is that games do have subcategories listed once you're on the game's page.... But this information is not used at all in the app store itself.
Limited and inconsistent sorting and filtering - Once you're in one of those categories with tens of thousands of apps, you get three options: sort by release date, name, or popularity. (Unless you're in the Games category; then your choices are only Featured or Release Date.) So if a really great app whose name starts with W was released several months ago and never caught on, it probably ever will because no one will ever see it. If you search, you can't sort but you can filter by paid/free, customer rating, and more. Why can't you sort within those filtered results? Why can't you filter within a category browse? Who knows! I guess that would just make it too easy to find what you want.
Leaving the app to download - This is just nonsensical. Every time you download an app - or even an update to an existing app - you're pushed out of the store. Because it is simply VITAL that you view the little "waiting" icon, amirite? And nobody wants to buy more than one app at a time!
Stupid Genius - I have yet to see the Genius recommend an app I actually want. Some of the recommendations seem totally random, unrelated to the app they're based on.
No zooming - As with their calendar app, Apple somehow completely forgot about those great multitouch gestures that they pioneered when designing the app store. No swiping between apps isn't such a problem, but no zoom? When the text is fairly tiny and the screenshots are miniscule?
The app store is both a major revenue stream in itself an a main driver of the popularity of iOS devices - you would think that Apple would want to make it as easy as possible to find and buy the apps you want. And yet it suffers from such basic usability problems that it seems to have been designed by a summer intern rather than Apple's famous software design team.
Did I miss your biggest app store pet peeve?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Week Cal HD - Gone!!!
WTF, Apple?
After I spend all these posts drooling over Week Cal HD both before and after it was released, it looks like I was lucky to grab it when I did - it's no longer in the app store! What's more, the developer claims that Apple pulled it without ever telling them why... But Apple's new calendar coming in iOS 5 apparently seems to have suspiciously incorporated a lot of the features that many of us bought Week Cal for, such as weekly and year views and tap/drag/drop functionality (all things they really should have had from the start, IMO).
First off, iOS 5 isn't widely available until fall - why deprive users of these features for several more months?
Second, and much more importantly, if this is really why Week Cal HD was pulled, this is just horrible behavior from multiple standpoints. It's a shitty way to treat an app dev, a popular one with a high quality product at that, when Apple's big market advantage right now is more and better third-party apps thanks to devs like Utilitap. Plus, it's rather anticompetitive - the company who owns the distribution channel shutting out those who compete directly with their (future) product? Super fishy in a way that the DOJ doesn't tend to like, if it's done on a large enough scale.
I love OS X because it's a terrifically-designed GUI over a Unix heart. iOS gets the first part, but Apple's lockdown of things like the file system just annoy and frustrate me (and make me look forward to the day that the iPad 2 gets jailbroken). If these allegations are true, it's further proof at apple is going too far with the lockdown of their mobile system - which I'm sure does make it more stable, but eventually will cause people (even loyal Apple fangirls like me) to turn away from it if a competitor can offer the same level of UI experience with more freedom.
After I spend all these posts drooling over Week Cal HD both before and after it was released, it looks like I was lucky to grab it when I did - it's no longer in the app store! What's more, the developer claims that Apple pulled it without ever telling them why... But Apple's new calendar coming in iOS 5 apparently seems to have suspiciously incorporated a lot of the features that many of us bought Week Cal for, such as weekly and year views and tap/drag/drop functionality (all things they really should have had from the start, IMO).
First off, iOS 5 isn't widely available until fall - why deprive users of these features for several more months?
Second, and much more importantly, if this is really why Week Cal HD was pulled, this is just horrible behavior from multiple standpoints. It's a shitty way to treat an app dev, a popular one with a high quality product at that, when Apple's big market advantage right now is more and better third-party apps thanks to devs like Utilitap. Plus, it's rather anticompetitive - the company who owns the distribution channel shutting out those who compete directly with their (future) product? Super fishy in a way that the DOJ doesn't tend to like, if it's done on a large enough scale.
I love OS X because it's a terrifically-designed GUI over a Unix heart. iOS gets the first part, but Apple's lockdown of things like the file system just annoy and frustrate me (and make me look forward to the day that the iPad 2 gets jailbroken). If these allegations are true, it's further proof at apple is going too far with the lockdown of their mobile system - which I'm sure does make it more stable, but eventually will cause people (even loyal Apple fangirls like me) to turn away from it if a competitor can offer the same level of UI experience with more freedom.
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