March 5th, 2010
So we all know that the iPhone doesn’t allow 3rd party apps to run in the background. Push notification is a great solution (for battery life and even may even be a better solution than background processes for many apps). There are a few app ideas that we’ve had in the past that just don’t work well because of the lack of background processes.
There is one particular class of app that would suddenly become a lot more useful on the iPhone, internet radio. We have dedicated services like Pandora and Slacker, large internet radio stations pushing out 10 or 15 channels, and local stations who also stream online. Pandora and Slacker (among others) have iPhone apps, but as we all know you can only run the app in the foreground. If you want to make a phone call, check your email or surf the web, you are out of luck… or are you?
As of iPhone OS 3.0, Safari now is a background process. This means that if you start an audio stream through Safari, you can hit your home button and go on your merry way while the audio plays. It’s not a perfect solution but you can cross one more item off your list.
Unfortunately, only raw streams are supported, so Pandora and Slacker don’t work (since they use Flash and the infrastructure is different), but any regular radio station that streams MP3 audio will work. I recommend starting at Shoutcast.com to grab a stream.
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January 20th, 2010
I recently purchased a Zonet ZVC7611 because it was relatively inexpensive for an IP camera (about 1/3 of the cost of the Panasonic I’m currently using). I figured if I was going to disassemble a cam to try to improve the IR image, I’d rather do it to a cheap camera.
The problem is the camera is Windows + IE only. It requires an ActiveX control just to view the stream. Luckily I was finally able (with much searching and even a failed attempt to contact their tech support) to get a feed from the camera.
As a side note, the default IP for the camera is 192.168.2.3. Luckily my internal IP range is 192.168.2.X so I didn’t have to muck with anything. Additionally, even without IE you can get the menus to work (and I think you can tweak the settings). It’s just not easy. Also the default username and password is : admin/1234.
A still frame can be retrieved by going to http://192.168.2.3/loginfree.jpg (or at least that’s the default). Still frames are fine, but camera actually looks like it’s a faster frame rate, and better low light than the Panasonic so I really want video… which you can get by going to http://admin:1234@192.168.2.3:80/snapshot.cgi (notice that you need to encode the username and password into the URL).
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December 14th, 2009
One of the things on my “want” list is a QLOCKTWO. Of course at about $1200, it’s ridiculously overpriced (but I guess that’s the cost of art). I never seriously considered purchasing one, but making one is certainly within my capabilities (I think). Really this is another great project for the Arduino board, so I bought a replacement (since my first board is still functioning in my differential thermostat). I think I’ll be able to build my QLOCKTWO clone for less than $120 when it’s all said and done… I guess we’ll see.
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November 11th, 2009
I’m not sure if I mentioned it or not, but as part of my laptop updated I bought a 320GB drive to swap into my new MacBook Pro. I’m not sure it it has always done it, or if it’s something that’s new (in the last month or so), but the drive ticks. It’s not a thrash like a dying hard drive, but most likely the heads being parked.
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October 4th, 2009
As a pool owner, probably the biggest fear you have is that one day, a catastrophic failure will dump the contents of your pool in a matter of minutes. Today that fear was realized for Cara and I.
The story starts months ago when I got home from work and the pool pump wasn’t running. For over a week the pool pump was off (and the pool turned a nice shade of green), then I was able to get it limping along which helped it from turning into a complete cesspool, however it wasn’t really up and running until a few weeks ago. By then it was time to close the pool, but before I could do that, I had to return it to a somewhat clean status.
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October 2nd, 2009
As soon as you get serious about a musical instrument you start to think about music differently. You tear apart songs into their components and begin to listen to the intricacies that are contained within. I wouldn’t say that the enjoyment is any different than for those who don’t play an instrument (I might even suggest that ignorance is bliss).
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September 21st, 2009
I have to express some disappointment in Apple in regard to iPhoto. iPhoto does not have any functionality for users who might want to have a unified library of photos. It’s a little bit of an all-or-nothing situation. I would have even be willing to move up to Aperture (Apple’s high end photo management app), if it handled the two machine/one library issue… but alas it doesn’t either.
Without a built-in solution you’re left with three unappetizing solutions:
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September 20th, 2009
I love movies, as my extensive DVD collection might seem to indicate, but things are different than they were only a few years ago. I buy few DVDs now, in fact I’ve bought only three movies on DVD this year. Unlike music (which I still purchase a lot of), I haven’t replaced DVDs with some other kind of media, I just, simply, don’t buy movies.
One might snap to the judgment that Netflix is the cause for this disinterest in purchasing DVD media, but I don’t think the blame rests squarely on the shoulders of movie rentals (after all, I’ve been renting movies in some fashion for many years).
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August 29th, 2009
I have this thing about packaging. Packaging can be an afterthought, and it’s rare that a company really engineers their packaging (Apple is a rarity here). I think poor packaging can be forgiven up to a point. Sure, there’s an expense involved in reengineering a package if there’s a problem, so it’s rare that a company is going to spend the time and energy to rework it.
Here’s the thing. Your package is your first impression. If it’s hard to get your product out of the package (or even worse, if you ruin the product), then you’re hurting your brand imaging. Packaging is advertising.
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Posted in General, Usability | No Comments »
August 21st, 2009
Last night John, Justin, Theresa, Brian, Ben, and I went to Mohegan Sun to see Chickenfoot. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a fan of Hagar (and Michael Anthony too). Take Hagar and Anthony and throw in Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Joe Satriani and you should have an amazing band… at least that’s the idea. I bought the Chickenfoot album with high hopes, and although the album is decent, it’s not very memorable. I expected more out of a live concert.
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