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[How it works]

Save as Pages document

November 24th, 2009
by Johan

I am currently working with a Wiki for the design documentation of a rather large project. From time to time however, I need to pull all that work down into a single file and for those situations I usually end up with some kind of word processor.

And although the Ribbon has replaced the obese menus of Microsoft Word I still prefer Pages (part of the iWork package) by Apple. This is simply because I do not very often exchange (directly) editable documents with others, so I tend to use PDFs and Pages is simply better aligned to the way I think and work. But not everyone are in my situation so Pages needs to be able to dependably handle Office documents. Until that happens Pages will never be considered as a serious candidate for word processing. There is no way around this. Apple needs to make sure Pages can speak Word perfectly.

But there are other reasons why not more people use Pages. First of all, there is no Pages reader. A reader has to be made and it needs to be free and multi-platform. (Of course, they should do this for Keynote and Numbers as well.) Again, this is just something that simply needs to be done. There is basically no good reason why they shouldn’t.

Still this isn’t all Apple should be doing. To make Pages a more attractive word processor they should integrate it into other products, and in this case in particular I am thinking of Safari. Imagine seeing Safari having Pages as a format option on the save sheet. I guess most teachers would hate that feature, but for me and my Wiki, the ability to save my online work as a directly editable Pages document with a single click on the mouse would be awesome.

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Apple TV and the iDevice to join gaming forces?

October 9th, 2009
by Johan

If you look at the numbers, the single largests category on the App Store is games, with approximately 19.000 titles. That is amazing considering the age of the App Store. But why limit these games to the iDevice? What if Apple updated the Apple TV with full wireless connectivity from an iPhone or iPod Touch (image, user input)?

The iDevice already functions as a game controller (eg. Zooz and Tomokewh), so if the games themselves were running directly on the Apple TV – the game system could be complete. This would be yet another reason for multiple iPod touches in a single household.

All the players with an iDevice could participate in scrabble, with all their own pieces on their own screen and the full board on the 42″ Full HD television set. Same with card games, the shared deck on the big screen and each players individual cards on the iDevice. Perfect! Maybe even Agricola could work, with all your own cards on the iDevice and maybe even online play.

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Git Ignore File

August 5th, 2009
by Johan

To very easily create the much needed .gitignore file, simply execute this command in the terminal:

echo -e "build/\n.DS_Store" > .gitignore

Do a cat .gitignore to check that the file indeed has build/ and .DS_Store on two separate lines, then you are done. I suggest you do this before your initial commit, as these files are likely in your project folder already.

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Started using Git

July 30th, 2009
by Johan

Only days ago I start using Git. So, naturally I am far from an expert. Still I think someone could find this useful. Briefly, this is what you do on the “master” computer to get started:

  1. Download and install Git (eg. adding the necessary path to .bashrc).
  2. Download and install the GUI wrapper GitX for OS X 10.5+.
  3. Introduce yourself to Git.
  4. Create a folder for the project and from within that folder initialize Git.
  5. Create the .ignore file to avoid Git caring about the build folder (and others Git should disregard).
  6. Add all the project files, which includes the hidden .ignore file.
  7. Commit the added files to the log and write a good multi-line commit message (short title followed by listed details).

Now, from the “other” computer, repeat steps 1-3 above before continuing:

  1. Use git to pull down the entire repository. Do this in terminal from the folder that should contain the project folder.
  2. Open GitX to verify that the repository is in fact intact (simply open the project folder).
  3. Continue developing the project as normal.
  4. The changes needs to be staged (comitted) before they can be pulled by another computer.

Changes made on one computer is basically pulled to the other using the same steps as above. So every time you switch to your other computer, you go through those 4 steps. Easy. More details follow.

Installing Git

Download Git from the main site: http://code.google.com/p/git-osx-installer/downloads/list?can=3 If you are not sure, go for the installer and make sure it is targeted for your platform (Intel vs. PPC). After the normal installation you should be able to run Git. Open the Terminal and type in:

which git

This shows you where Git was installed, which also means it is ready for use. If nothing shows up, you might need to add the path to .bash_profile, in a similar fashion as below. However, when connecting using SSH, only the .bashrc file is actually loaded, so you should also make sure the path is there as well. This can easily be done by executing this in terminal:

echo export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin/:$PATH >> ~/.bashrc

This will create the file if needed, or append the path to the existing .bashrc file in your home directory. Now download and install GitX from http://gitx.frim.nl/ – a very nice GUI rapper for Git on OS X 10.5+.

You are now ready to actually start using Git.

Initial Cloning

To get a clean copy of a project on the LAN, you need the local IP address (eg. 10.0.1.4) or the alias (imac.local) of the computer hosting the project. You can connect using either SSH (enable remote login) or HTTP (enable web sharing). However, in this post I will only use SSH.

To get the initial project from another computer, you run the git clone command from within the folder that should contain the cloned project (you can move it later). Type the following at the command line:

git clone ssh://home@imac.local/~/Projects/TheOne

This copies the entire project folder (including the hidden .git repository) to the current destination. In the example above I used ssh to connect to the local computer imac.local. The home@ informs git to connect using home as the user name on the remote system. Following the server name are ~/Projects/TheOne which means to access Projects contained in the Home folder of the specified user which contains the project called TheOne.

Having cloned the project, you can now inspect the project history using GitX. Launch GitX (if needed click File > Open) and select the project folder (no need to expand or enter it). Nice.

Get the latest changes

To update your project with the latest changes, you simply pull the changes from the other computer:

git pull ssh://away@macbp.local/~/Projects/TheOne master

The added word master lets git know that you want everything, not just a single branch. When you have changed some files on your laptop, you could push the changes back to the other computer. However, this is not a good idea if the files are checked out on the other end as your changes could get lost.

“By the way, behind the scenes, a pull is simply a fetch followed by git merge; recall the latter merges a given commit into the working directory.” (from GitMagic)

Until I get more familiar with Git I will simply pull the changes from the most current computer as needed.

GitX Contributions and Further Reading

You can easily download the source for GitX and contribute to the project by running:

git clone git://github.com/pieter/gitx.git

Read more about contributions from the contribution section of their own web page.

Read more about using Git with remotes: http://progit.org/book/ch2-5.html

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What resides in my menu bar

July 19th, 2009
by Johan

I think it is about time to once again share what resides in my menu bar. I am extremely happy with the current tools, obviously I recommend them all.

The Usual Suspects

The Usual Suspects: Great apps instantly available from the menu bar.

Jumpcut is free, open source and pretty cool. However it is limited to text only, so no image buffering with this one. I use it all the time, if only to simply strip the formatting.

Punakea and Pukka are the newest entries to the menu bar.

I tried Punakea when it was brand new, but didn’t like the way they tagged the files. However, not long ago Punakea switched to OpenMeta, the emerging meta tagging standard for OS X, which instantly prompted me to buy a license. The current version is great. The browser works perfectly and the tagging is close to perfect. The only thing missing is exclusion of tags, but the developers liked the idea – so maybe we will see it in a future release. I am surprised exclusion isn’t standard for all tagging apps.

Pukka was just updated with a menu bar delicious bookmark searh, across all your accounts. To access the bookmarks of each individual account, you have to access the context menu from the icon in the dock. In my experience Pukka is by far the best (and among the very few) multi-account Delicious clients out there. Please add your comment if I am wrong.

Last.fm is a very nice streaming service. I was a premium subscriber of Spotify, but the service makes it kinda hard to discover new music. Not so with Last.fm. They operate using tags added by the users, which is a fantastic way to discover new music. Last.fm also makes it easy to buy the music you are listening to. Subscribing is cheap, only about $3 per month.

Finally Tweetie, my favorite Twitter app - both on the Mac and iPhone. Not much to say about it really, except the very untraditional user interface. According the developer the interface is a result of mimicking the characteristics of view and menu navigation on the iPhone/iPod Touch. It may feel a little awkward in the beginning, but that will pass.

Airfoil Speaker, Alarm Clock, MenuBar Countdown, Voice Candy, Wallpaper Clock – are among the other menu bar based apps that I use from time to time as needed. However, for most timers I am now using Reminder – the great (free) widget from Gravity.

So there you have it, that are the apps currently residing in my menu bar. What do you have in your menu bar?

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What data best describes your computer work?

July 9th, 2009
by Johan

Imagine being able to get an automatic summary of the work you have done on the computer. What data would be most useful to you? The number of applications used per day, the number of documents created for your projects or maybe the duration of a project in days combined with average workload per day? Or would it suffice to simply know how much time you have spent working in hours and minutes?

What about a scenario with a deadline. Would you care about idle time or the time spent on non-project related apps and documents (distractions)? Should the summary separate each session (uninterrupted work), each day, every week – or maybe you would only care about the bottom line (total time distracted, total workload)?

We would appreciate your comments.

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Safari Beta Tabs Gone

June 22nd, 2009
by Johan

When Apple offered the beta version of Safari 4.0 to the public, they introduced a new layout with the tabs replacing the title bar at the top of the window. In the final release of Safari version 4.0 did not include this new layout and I’m guessing the reason are the reaction from the users. But in this scenario, Apple reacted too fast; the interfaced was a definite improvement – it just needed a little tweaking.

safari-4beta

The Beta Tab Layout: With the Safari Beta 4.0 Apple tried out Googles approach with the tab bar at the top of the window. The layout was however, removed from the final product.

To the best of my knowledge, Google Crome introduced this tab layout and Safari followed. The layout makes it perfectly clear that both the address field and page content is unique to each particular tab. Moving the focus to another tab affects the address field and the page content, which is exactly what the user expects. User expectations matching reality is a typical trait of a good user experience.

Placing reversed tabs underneath the address field connects the two, but the page content is left hanging – not visually attached to either of them.

The main complaint from users as far as I could tell, was that the handle used to move the tab was too small. Missing the handle caused the entire browser window to move which of course becomes annoying pretty fast. This frustration could easily be solved by adding optional functionality using the Option key. Hitting the Option-key should have caused a grab and drag anywhere on a tab to move the tab and not the window. Easy. This way the handles to move the tab could remain small as any user that often reorganizes the tabs, would be interested enough to find the alternative method (the shortcut could be part of the tool tip when hovering the handle). The remaining users would likely not mind hitting the small drag target as they are not likely to reorganize the tabs very often.

In my opinion I hope Apple gives the tab based title bar another chance. It is a good and intuitive way to organize the tabs that even saves precious screen real estate. Two good reasons to keep the design. At the very least, they could include it as a user preference.

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iTunes needs an update

June 19th, 2009
by Johan

Obviously Apple are fully aware of the success of the iPhone/iPod Touch (iDevice). They know how many iDevices they have sold and now with the introduction of the new iPhone 3G S and the lowered price of the iPhone 3G, surely they expect to sell even more, loads more. As the scope of the iTunes Store keep growing the need for an interface update becomes increasingly clear.

For me, the following improvements would be a good start:

Tab Enabled Browsing

Why not allow the user to open multiple tabs when shopping? When a search returns a list of items it is very inefficient to keep jumping back and forth between the item and the search result. Alternatively, allow the user to select either list, grid og Cover Flow to browse the result.

Introduce Recommendations

I am not sure if Sieglers suggestion to add an App Genius would be the best solution, but the App Store clearly needs some new and innovative way to assist the user and personalize the App Store experience. Integrating meta data dressed in a great user interface would be nice. At the very least the ability to search based on user reviews (star count) should be added. Adding an Amazon like “Users Of This App Also Downloaded” recommendations panel (that can be easily hidden/disabled) would also improve the Store experience (more transparent than the Genius recommendations).

Improve App Store Navigation

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one that find the tiny buttons in the iTunes Store impractically small. When a search returns several pages of hits, the buttons to go to the next and previous page are tiny.

Tiny buttons: Why not make the buttons larger?

Tiny buttons: Why not make the buttons larger?

On the other hand, why not add keyboard navigation throughout the iTunes Store? Allowing the arrow keys to navigate between the different pages? Clicking would set focus to the frame that should be keyboard or scroll wheel controlled. Currently the iTunes Store behaves like a web page and not at all like a dedicated application.

Again I think list, grid or Cover Flow layout could add some value, or maybe something similar to CoolIris. Either way it would be a very efficient way of navigating the search results (of course with rating and description as part of the flow), and in my opinion clearly an improvement.

Customizable iTunes Store Front

To be able to customize the iTunes Store layout and content would be nice, just like in iGoogle: adding and removing content depending on what the user want and need. If a user is not interested in music at all, why should music suggestions occupy that much screen real-estate? Why not allow the user to select the order of the tabs of the “New Relases” so that eg. Apps are shown as default when the Store is loaded? The iTunes Store needs to be user customizable by drag and drop in much the similar way as the toolbar is customized.

Include the Icons in the Application Sync List

Given some  guesstimates and calculations, each user have about 25 apps downloaded to their iDevice. With such a number, the list of apps in the library is easy to manage.

Missing Visuals: The app sync list needs to show the app icons.

Missing Visuals: The app sync list needs to show the app icons.

However, it would still be nice to use those beautiful icons when selecting which apps to sync. This is especially true for the avid downloader with several hundred apps in their library, many with similarly sounding names (eg. Blue Attack, Blue Defense, Blue Skies). If I want to change my app selection I currently need to visit Applications in the iTunes sidebar simply to remind myself what the different apps actually are so I can add or remove those I no longer need. Adding the icons to the check list would provide the visual cue needed.

Currently Apple is not making it easy for their most active app consumers.

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Introduce a little inconsistency

June 8th, 2009
by Johan

Have you ever used an iPhone/iPod Touch (iDevice)?  If you haven’t you should seriously consider trying one. Get your hands on the interaction. You’ll quickly notice the extensive use of animations and a clever set of interactive controls. For example the slide action required to unlock the iDevice is outstanding. The idea to require the user to slide a virtual switch to perform an action is smart for several obvious reasons, most notably the inherent opportunity for the user to cancel the action.

This slider switch is used in several different scenarios, however, if you have an iPhone one of these create a problem (or at the very least an annoyance). But the problem has a simple solution: inconsistency. Let me explain.

Slide to Cancel: Reversed slider switch to get noticed.

Slide to Cancel: Reversed slider switch to get noticed.

Normally the slider switch is used to confirm an action initiated on the iDevice itself, which is fine. The problem irises if the user changes the state of the device from a connected computer. Without touching the iDevice itself, the state of the unit has changed from sleep mode to eg. sync mode, however synchronization is cancelled with exactly the same physical action as when unlocking the iDevice. To be fair, the caption on the slider switch itself clearly explains the result of the action, however consistency in this case is still not optimal.

If the phone rings this annoyance becomes even more evident. When someone calls the iPhone lights up, showing the user who is calling. The user at this stage routinely expects that sliding will unlock the phone and answer the call, but while in sync mode the same action cancels synchronization and answers the call. As a heads up for the user, Apple should simply implement a reversed slider switch – on that slides from right to left – to cancel actions initiated from the computer. This inconsistency will cause the action to get noticed, thereby helping the user to avoid an accidental synchronization cancellation. Now the user will easier remember to restart synchronization after finishing the phone call, thereby avoiding the frustration of disconnecting the iPhone without the updated content.

This is of course not a big issue, but it is unnecessary. Inconsistency if used right, is the perfect solution to prevent routine and automated actions from causing frustrations. The iDevice is remarkably consistent by design, which isn’t always a good thing. There is nothing like a little inconsistency to grab the attention of the user.

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