Design vs. Functionality - Apple Archives

Apple's Safari Reader May Become a Publishing Game Changer

2011-06-07T15:43:47Z

The WWDC 2011 keynote was jam-packed with software innovations and new offerings from Apple, including new versions of its desktop and mobile operating systems, as well as the all new iCloud. Of everything announced though, there was one new feature I saw that could potentially disrupt my day-to-day professional life if it took off, and that is the Reader update to the Safari browser.

In a nutshell, if you navigate to a Web page containing an article while using Safari 5 and click the Reader icon in the Smart Address field, the article is pulled forward cleanly, with all disruption, advertising, and unassociated visuals removed. Basically, it looks similar to the double-spaced papers you used to hand in at your High School. The layout is actually painfully clean and easy to read, something not often seen online anymore. Even if the article is paginated across 10 or so separate pages, Reader pulls them all together into one flowing document.

So what’s wrong with easy to read content? For a user, nothing… yet (I’ll explain the “yet” later). For a publisher, the concept of a feature like Reader in browsers could seriously damage online advertising efforts: the life blood and singular revenue system of many of these sites. Pagination on articles is designed to increase repeated advertising exposure (impressions) based on a singular interest point. Reader negates that strategy entirely. Secondly, if your advertising does not run within the content of the article itself, it’s removed. As far as I can tell with some simple testing, Reader also pulls out all Flash/video advertising… even if it is included in the context of the article itself. Realistically, if a user becomes accustomed to using the Reader function exclusively, entire online advertising strategies become ineffective.

Currently the Reader feature is only available on Safari 5 (6.3 percent market share as of March 2011), but as mentioned in the keynote yesterday, it will be rolled out in iOS5 this fall across all mobile Apple products. I know, it’s still a drop in the bucket as far as market share is concerned. But, who isn’t to say that Chrome, Firefox, and Internet Explorer won’t follow suit with similar features in the near future? They all seem to play copy-cat in some way or another sooner or later. It’s not like mobile usage is decreasing year to year either.

Now back to that “yet” from before. What does this change mean for the users? Initially, it means you’ll be able to read great content on the Web, but sooner or later these publishers are going to need to bring in online revenue. One way to bring in this revenue would be similar to product placement in movies. Conceptually, if you can’t run a commercial, work the product right into the content. This means content itself will become commercialized more so than normal. Publishers will start small, but eventually for the sake of the dollar it will be abused and content quality will suffer. Many publishers may want to retain their quality and move their online publishing strategies to an exclusively application-based solution. With an app, they regain control over their mobile content and advertising, without having to worry about browser features interrupting revenue strategies. In the long run though, this may cost the user in download and/or subscription fees.

Do I think this a doom-and-gloom feature? Absolutely not. Personally, I think it’s ingenious. As smartphones became more powerful and mobile browsers became easier to use, mobile versions of websites have gone the way of the Dodo. But, a cluttered website is still ridiculously hard to read on some screens. Reader basically makes article content of any website mobile friendly.

My only concern is that features such as Reader open a door that could potentially send a lot of the online publishers back to the drawing board, and we’ve essentially gotten the “heads-up” about it. Plan accordingly.

The BlackBerry Storm 8 Months Later

2009-08-18T18:55:48Z

I really wanted to like this Smartphone. I've tried so hard. People ask me on a daily basis how I like the Storm. I can't tell if they ask out of general curiosity, or pity, but I lie either way and say it's great. It's terrible, but I have my reasons. Primarily, I really hate to admit failure in my investment of time and money. Secondly, I really did hope things would get better with upgrades. It's now been 8 months. There's been a few OS upgrades, and there is reports of a new model possibly surfacing in November. It's time to set things straight.

Official review from someone that used the BlackBerry Storm extensively for 8 months:
Run, don't walk away from this BlackBerry.

It had so much potential, so much promise... so many bugs. When I wake up to the alarm on my BlackBerry Storm every morning (that it decides to work), I glance over at my night table and all I can think about is the "F" word.

Frustration.

No wait... Failure. No, maybe Flop. Or maybe... nahhh can't say that here.

As soon as I depress the screen (multiple times for it to register) to activate snooze for the 5th time, I know all I have to look forward to with my hand-held headache is a full day worth of cursing as my little black and chrome friend refuses to work, lags out, hangs up, or just turns off for no reason. Sometimes I don't even get to hit snooze. Those are the mornings I wake up on my own due to the failure of the device overnight. Those mornings are my favorite. And by "favorite" I really mean the phone is lucky to still be in one piece at that point. Those are the mornings that some type of battery or hardware failure occurred overnight and I am greeted with a white screen and an icon of a battery with a blue lightning bolt through it.

Those are the special mornings that I get to take the next couple of hours trying to get the phone to take a charge, pulling the battery, and holding buttons on boot screens, until finally I hit the perfect combination of random events that tell my BlackBerry Storm to come back to life.

Speaking of battery pulls, it's a daily occurrence. Sometimes multiple times a day. The damn Storm should just have an eject button to make it easier for me. Pulling off my protector, the rear panel, and then digging out the battery, just to replace everything a second later gets old real fast. What kind of gadget requires you to yank its power source out daily just to keep it limping along?

Want to read your email? Press and wait 2 minutes. That's the average time I have to wait each time.

Need to make a phone call? I'd love to, but the little green button doesn't seem to register the request until the 12th time I press it.

Yesterday I snapped. I wrote to Verizon and explained that I'm about 12 hours from giving up on them and switching to AT&T and an iPhone unless they attempt to fix my problem. Early termination penalty or no, I'm that fed up. I asked for a replacement BlackBerry Tour free of charge, so I could continue with the Verizon service, but I could shed myself of this epic disappointment of hand-held technology.

They explained that because I have never reported a problem previously, and I have not replaced the phone yet, that they could not accommodate my request for the Tour. Instead they are sending me a new Storm in the mail to replace my "problem". Yay. I'm overflowing with excitement...

The first hick-up this new phone experiences will result in me marching it right back to Verizon. I've dealt with it long enough and I refuse to continue. They can keep replacing my problem Storms until they get that it would just be cheaper to give me something that works. Maybe I'll be able to run their stock dry to save the rest of you from making my mistake.

IE6 Needs to Go

2009-08-11T15:38:27Z

I seriously dislike Microsoft products for the most part. Especially their browser. As a web designer, Internet Explorer has been a thorn in my side for the better part of a decade. But, as sad as it is, the world needs Microsoft. What we no longer need is IE6.

If you've read any of this blog, you know that I am a big proponent of using the next best thing. Moving forward with technology, ideas, solutions, and standards. Right now, supporting IE6 specifically is the biggest hurdle I have to overcome on a daily basis. It's old technology that doesn't support current web standards, yet 15-20% of web users still use it as their primary browser.

No one wants to build a site that doesn't work properly for 1/5 of their target audience, but the time and money wasted on building a site that holds up in today's markets and is IE6 compatible is ridiculous. It's 2009! Designers and programmers should not have their creativity and ingenuity handcuffed because people still choose to use a browser that doesn't support advanced CSS or XHTML. The research, the hacks, the workarounds, the extra lines of code, the extra processes that slow the site down... they aren't worth the money spent by companies and developers. Especially when their user base can upgrade their IE browser for free. Yeah that's right, it's FREE.

Afraid of upgrading your IE browser? Upgrading your OS to Vista left a bad Microsoft taste in your mouth? I don't blame you. OK, here's another solution then. Download Firefox... it's FREE. Download Chrome... it's FREE. Hell, download Safari... that's also FREE. No it's not just for a Mac. They all support the latest web standards and make an attempt to continue upgrading on a semi-frequent basis.

If you won't do it for me or the benefit of the designer community, do it for the economy. Abandon IE6 so clients don't insist on being compatible, and designers like myself can charge them less for development time. If you'd like to further support bringing down IE6, check out this site to get involved.

New iPod Shuffle Might Just Be Too Small

2009-03-13T13:10:42Z

Apple has been following a trend of going smaller and sleeker with their designs, and continue to push the envelope with the introduction of the new iPod Shuffle this week. Even though it now has 4GB of memory (1,000 songs), it's about half the volume of the last version...which was already just slightly bigger than a quarter. The unit now basically looks like a stick of Orbit gum in an aluminum wrapper with a headphone jack and a clip. It still has no screen. It also has no controls on the unit itself other than the on/off switch, there's no room. Instead, they moved them to the wire of the custom Apple headphones.

New features include something called VoiceOver, where for the first time on an iPod Shuffle you can identify what or who you are listening to from a soothing male voice that comes directly from the iPod.

Yes...your iPod can now talk to you.

Personally, I'm not sold on this feature. I make the playlists that load onto my old Shuffle, so I know it's music that I enjoy and can already identify on my own. The name of the iPod is the "Shuffle", so you can conclude pretty quickly that its entire purpose is to randomly shuffle through what you loaded into it. The whole thing just seems unnecessary. It's a weak attempt at trying to give some kind of playlist control, without a display, to a unit that really doesn't require it.

Anyways, I'm harping on a feature that in my eyes (or ears) doesn't really matter.

What's the biggest reason for me not upgrading my old iPod Shuffle? The controls being moved to the earbuds. Currently, in order for this new iPod to work, you MUST use the custom Apple earbuds for this iPod. It's the only way to get it to work, because they are the only ones with the controls. Apple has said it is working with headphone makers to develop compatible earphones for the shuffle, but nothing else is on the market so far. I don't know about most people, but Apple earbuds destroy my ears, and the quality isn't anything to brag about. I'm in pain by the 3rd or 4th song, and want them out immediately. I'm pretty particular about sound quality and comfort and have invested in Bose Tri-Port In-Ear Headphones for my mobile listening pleasure. CNET doesn't give them the greatest review, but I think the sound from them is amazing and they are probably the most comfortable headphones I have ever used.

I'm not very keen on the idea of replacing my favorite headphones (which cost more than the new $80 shuffle to begin with) with something sub-par just because Apple decided smaller is better.

The PerfectStorm?

2009-01-18T19:58:35Z

Got an iPhone? Want a BB Storm? Well before you go changing carriers and investing in a couple hundred dollars of hardware, there's a new iPhone theme you may want to check out first.

The self proclaimed PerfectStorm brings the look and feel of the BlackBerry Storm to your Apple iPhone. Once installed, most of the user interface resembels the Storm including icons, lock-screen, calculator, media player, camera, dialer, sounds, browser, and keyboard.

Personally, I think it's silly, but I guess if you are really having that much trouble choosing between the top touchscreen phones, it's a middle ground of some kind.

iTunes abandons DRM

2009-01-06T22:04:58Z

Digital Rights Management (DRM) is an access control technology designed to limit the functionality of digital media. By functionality, I mean the ability of a consumer to copy songs or move them to multiple computers. Most of the music inventory that can be downloaded from iTunes to date has DRM embedded into it. It's frustrating, and it drives music lovers from around the world to bypass paying for their music all together just so they can have full access to their music, a.k.a. illegal downloading.

At the Macworld Expo trade show today (Tuesday 1/6), Phil Schiller, Apple's Senior Vice President, gave the first keynote delivered at Macworld since 1997 that was not given by Steve Jobs. He announced that iTunes will be offering songs in three pricing tiers beginning in April: $0.69, $0.99, and $1.29. Which price you get all depends on the recording company the song came from.

The pricing tier is a result of a flexibility offering Apple gave record labels to convince them to agree to sell all of their songs DRM free. Apple began offering 8 million of their 10 million songs today DRM free, and plan to have the other 2 million available by the end of the quarter.

I understand the plight of many music lovers. Today's music is saturated and often bland. Many do not want to pay $10-20 dollars for a full album from the music store, only to get 1 or 2 quality tracks. Most of us have figured out the wonders of paying a dollar or two to download the tracks we want from iTunes instantly, and bypassing the crap. But DRM is infuriating, and although I understand why it has been implemented in the past, it can drive a person to look elsewhere for their music. By dropping prices on some songs and offering everything DRM free, Apple may be able to coax some of the illegal music downloader's back into a legit music lifestyle, and cashing in on the response.

Bloggers dream of a perfect iPhone

2008-12-29T17:41:53Z

Earlier this week Gizmodo posted a concept design of what they vision should be the next generation of the popular iPhone. The design was originally developed by blogger Matt Brady and named the iPhone Elite. Gizmodo took his concept and tweaked it with some added features of their own and named it the iPhone Pro.

Their basic complaints about the current iPhone follows that of many in the blogosphere. No physical keyboard, lack of storage, and a sub-par camera. The iPhone Pro concept features 60 GB of storage, a slide-out keyboard, true 16:9 aspect ratio, and a better all around camera.

While Matt's original concept is incredible, I think Gizmodo made one very impressive addition. A D-Pad and two buttons. iPhone games are becoming increasingly popular and by adding easier and more recognizable controls, I think it could really begin to compete with handhelds like the Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP.

The only problem that I can see with all of this is the risk of adding too much size. With an added keyboard and a better camera with zoom capabilities, you could potentially get close to doubling the 4.7 ounces that the iPhone 3G currently weighs. There's also the potential that the depth would increase to well over a half inch (currently at 0.48 inches). Features are great, but no one wants to talk to a brick.

Even Santa needs Tech

2008-12-22T18:59:35Z

On a recent trip to the local shopping mall I caught a glimpse of technology helping out Ole Kris Kringle himself. During a lull in the line of children waiting to tell the big man what they wanted this year, Santa got up from his chair to take a call (from Mrs. Claus I'm sure) on what looked to be an iPhone.

While I wasn't quick enough to snap a photo of Santa on an iPhone, I was able to catch him returning to the electric back massage upgrade he had installed on his chair for the long days of posing for pictures with the children of Connecticut.

It's nice to know that even Santa appreciates technology.

The computer mouse goes over the hill

2008-12-10T18:54:56Z

The computer mouse had its 40th anniversary on Tuesday. It's come a long way since it was first displayed to the public in 1968, but personally I think it may go the way of the Dodo in the coming years due to the increased implementation of touch screens and speech recognition.

While it is currently an indispensable tool for most computer users, I still feel all instances available out there are poorly designed for my purposes and lack the type of functionality I need on a daily basis. I'm still a trackball fan.

Read more about notable moments in mouse history here.

The new MacBook vs. the Economy

2008-11-25T16:53:41Z

On November 10th, Digitimes reported that Apple and Asustek were reducing notebook outsourcing by 20-30% for the fourth quarter of this year. This came less than a month after the October 14th launch of the Unibody MacBook and MacBook Pro. It's not very surprising in these economic times, and it also may be that they are bringing production levels down to a normal level after trying to meet the demands of the first month after launch.

Recent reports say that Apple saw a 28% increase in sales over last October following the launch of the new MacBooks and HP has reported that their Q3 notebook revenue grew 26%. But in the long run, I think Apple might be pricing itself out of the competition with how tight money is this holiday season.

The new MacBooks haven't reduced in price at all as far as I can tell, while Windows notebooks have seen about a 20% price drop in the past 2 years. I'm a Mac fan, but you have to wonder how it is all adding up? You're not getting a Blu-Ray player, or Wi-Max, or even your old FireWire port to use with your camcorder anymore. What you do get is some increased graphics and backlighting, all enclosed in a single block of aluminum.

With the economic downturn, consumers are going to be more careful about their larger purchases. I live on computers and have years of experience on both Mac and PC, but many consumers do not. Personally, I will pay the price for the Mac OS and performance. But, the general consumer wants the "goodies", they want more for less, and they could care less if it all comes packaged in an expensive solid piece of aluminum.

Mac based web developers may want to check out Coda before Dreamweaver

2008-11-07T13:44:14Z

I didn't learn web development the best way and I know it. My first real job was a typesetting and page layout position for a publishing company. One day the boss asked me if I had any interest in web development. I had zero experience, but said "Sure". I assumed they'd be sending me to classes and putting me through some sort of training program. I was wrong. I was given a Mac G5 loaded with Adobe and Macromedia software, a book on html and a book on coldfusion, and told "Get to it".

Dreamweaver helped me through teaching myself the ways of the web, and I'm grateful for it. I still use Dreamweaver to this day because I'm comfortable with the functionality and the interface, even though Adobe has been slowly changing it on me since they assimilated Macromedia. But now, I'm not so sure I need it anymore.

I've never been a "Drag and Drop" designer, and hardly ever use the design view on Dreamweaver. Actually I hardly use any of the bells and whistles of Dreamweaver. I'm a hand coder. Line by line I write out everything. It's how I tought myself, it's faster for me, and there's no suprises later on.

I stumbled upon Coda late last week. The "One-window Web Development" application for Mac OS X (sorry PC users) by Panic. I downloaded the 14 Day trial, launched the program, and was instantly blown away at the interface. It could possibly be the most well designed development application I've ever used. You could tell that the guys at Panic designed something they actually wanted to use themselves.

In one tabbed window, Coda provides text editor, file transfer, svn, css, terminal, books, and more. Coda uses the power of Transmit, the award winning FTP companion also developed by Panic. The tabbed layout could possibly be one of Coda's best functionalities. I can easily flip between editing a file, to my terminal, to a preview, while keeping everything organized. It doesn't have any of the unnecessary garbage I never use in Dreamweaver, and is basically designed around everything a hand coder would need. I'm sold.

So here's the kicker...I recently purchased Dreamweaver.

Dreamweaver CS4 application and licence = $399 (Upgrade $199)
Coda = $99

I'd advise checking out the free trial if I were you.

MacBooks Get a Facelift

2008-10-17T12:32:03Z

MacBook is Apple's most popular Mac, and for some reason, Apple decided to start over with their new versions.

The first order of business... out with the polycarbonate and in with the aluminum case design. The key to the new enclosure is it's unibody, which is machined from a single piece of aluminum. This allows the new MacBook to be thinner and lighter by not having to accommodate multiple parts. Aluminum has a great strength to weight ratio as well as giving it a very crisp and clean finished look.

The display is seamless glass with an LED backlight. LED turns on instantly and has no warmup time, and makes for a 30% more energy efficient display. It is also sporting the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor, helping the MacBook reach new levels of performance with out sacrificing the life of the battery. The graphic subsytem is 5x faster than Apple's previous product.

Another new feature is an all-new, smooth glass multi-touch trackpad. They removed the button to give more room for gestures, but turned the entire trackpad itself into a button. The whole pad is now clickable. Neat idea, but I generally hate trackpads. I've got abnormally large hands, and I have a lot of trouble navigating them. I'm also very forceful on my keypads and computer navigation tools, and I just imagine myself accidentally clicking the pad with every gesture.

There are a few more things to note though that I'm not too thrilled about, one of which is the complete loss of FireWire. FireWire is the peripheral interface that Apple has built into almost every Mac since 1999. A lot of camcorders have relied on FireWire and a lot of home movie makers have relied on the iMovie software in recent years. If you upgrade your MacBook, and you still want to send Grandma a video of little Billy getting bit by goat at the petting zoo, it looks like you might need to upgrade your camcorder as well to one with USB 2.0 connectivity.

Also... what's with this new mini display port? Yet another port standard change to a format no one else uses yet. Sounds like something that's going to require adapter, after adapter, after adapter.

All in all, I like the new design and I like the increased focus on graphics and appearance. However, I think Apple changed a few elements that didn't necessarily need to be changed and may have decreased it's "need-to-have" value for some repeat customers.

New Nano Impression

2008-09-09T18:56:24Z

Today the new iPod Nano was introduced to the world by Mr. Steve Jobs and I'm mildly impressed. It's smaller, somewhat thinner, and comes in every color of the rainbow (actually it only comes in 9, but that's good enough for me).

It has that curved surface, tapered edge, slick-aluminum look that Apple seems to be taking their latest designs in the direction of. It's actually as thick as the old model of the Nano at its thickest point, but it tapers off greatly and accompanied with its length, it gives an overall "thinner" feel.

It also features an accelerometer like the iPhone and iTouch, so a user can turn their Nano and view in landscape.

So far the only criticism I have is this whole "shake-to-shuffle" feature. Neat idea, but I sense a flaw. Aside from the iPod shuffle, it would be the top choice of hardware offered by Apple for listening while working out or running. Especially with this new Nike + iPod option. But, if I'm running and my iPod decided to switch songs every stride, I'm likely to chuck it across the gym.