DeeGeek - Mobile Design Geek Blog

OK...maybe I have drunk enough of the Kool-Aid.  Because iTunes to me...really sucks.  The interface is so jumbled and patched together...it's hard to figure out how to get things done.  I admit that I'm geeky enough to be the one in the household that everyone goes to when they can't figure something out on the computer.  As a former (reformed?) engineer, I can usually figure out the clunky way that an interface wants you to do something.

But iTunes gets me every time.  I try not to use it too often, because it makes me batty.  Does it make you batty too?  Don't tell me that it's just me.

As applications transform and re-emerge on the phone-top, it's interesting to think about the new types of functions that apps can provide that weren't as feasible in the non-mobile, non-plugged in world.

One of the primary things that I see that my iPhone phone-top provides is Always On Access.  Where-ever I am, the thing is in my pocket.  What this makes possible is a whole new class of apps to manage/enable/control what I'll call Micro-tasks.  Micro-tasks are the tasks that you need or want...
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Norm Rose has an short review of the top iPhone travel apps here.

The intriguing thing to note is that "travel" in this context is pretty broad...covering everything from restaurant reviews to tipping and Google maps.

The other is that most well-known travel brands are NOT represented in the top iPhone travel apps.  I wonder...will that be the case a year from now?


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Lost in the App Store...that's what it feels like these days.  Unless you know exactly what you're looking for, the App Store feels like a random hodge-podge of clutter...with the occasional cool thing.  While it sometimes is fun to wander through there when I have an extra few hours (YEAH...when is that???), it will be important for better discovery tools to develop around the App Store.

From the App developer point of view, this means getting found in the App Store is that much harder too.  ...
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I was reminded today about one of the things I hate hate hate about the iPhone.  
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Here's a fun one: Animoto.  If you find yourself ever wondering what to do with all those candid photos you've taken on your iphone...Animoto is the answer.  You just select a bunch from your Photo Library (limit is 12, but you probably only want to pick 8), select some music (Animoto offers a small selection of music that they have permission to use)...and VOILA.  In about 10 minutes, you can play an automatically created video sequence of your photos, in time with whatever music you selecte...
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Stitcher has got to be one of my favorite iphone apps.  Why?  Well, it allows me to surf podcasts more easily...no need for all the searching, downloading, managing, etc.  I just open up Stitcher, and start streaming my favorite podcasts.  I play mostly from my favorites, but you can listen to channels and by podcast source.  Stitcher recently fixed one of my peeves about the app...a scrubber to skip or replay portions of a podcast (you know, the times when you're listening and you say "they ...
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Once I got past the novelty of pinching and tapping on web pages, I started to feel some of the limitations of iphone web-surfing.

The multi-browser implementation is painful.  It's hard to keep track of what pages you have open, and it feels like a ton of work to switch between pages.  Usually when I open the browser, I'm interested in going to a new page.  With the implementation the way it is, though, I first have to wait for a previous page to fill in, then tap in the address bar to bring ...
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Does anyone else get "numb fingers" over all the touches involved to read email on the iphone? 

First, you touch to get into email, then you touch to get into one of your accounts, then you touch to get into the inbox.  Then, you touch to look at the latest email.  Then back to email account, back to the list of accounts.  Start all over again.  There's GOT to be a better way.  It just feels to me that there are 2 touches too many.  One way to simplify and eliminate one touch is to put the in...
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I admit it.  I'm a news junkie.  And by far one of the best places to get my news fix is my pocket.  Just rip out the old iphone gadget...and the news is at my fingertips.

But the news apps that are out there now, I'm sorry to say, leave me wanting more.

One of my favorite apps is AP Mobile News app.  AP is the news legend, right?  In general, their app gets it right.  It's pretty quick, it's simple, minimal advertising clutter, and for the most part, decent bottom-screen options (more on that ...
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