OSX Lion: Form over function highlights.
The two skeuomorphic apps which ship with OSX Lion, iCal and Address Book, offer some frustrating form over function compromises which obscure content.
iCal has relegated your list of Calendars to a recessed button top left. Clicking this pops up a semi-transparatent overlay with a list of your calendars which you can then toggle on/off, but there’s no way to make this list of calendars viewable at all times.
For the general user, this won’t be a concern, but in the office we’re all synced up to our iCal server so we have a handle on vacation schedules, meeting scheduling, and so on.
Making searches more convenient on touch screens.
Here’s a fantastic new interaction Microsoft’s just introduced with their updated Bing app for the iPad.
The skinny:
From our research, we know that many searches are inspired by things people see on the web. Today, it can be somewhat painful to search on a tablet when you’re engaged in reading something; just copying and pasting pieces of text from a webpage to a search box can take up to nine steps on the iPad. With Lasso you can circle and search in just two steps.
More about this update from the Bing Team here.
And you can download from the App Store here.
(Source: daringfireball.net)
Startup apps and competition from heavy hitters.
For a startup the biggest problem is almost never a competitor. The biggest problem is typically non-adoption.
Dan Moral rightly points out at StartupNorth that Apple introducing iMessage to the iPhone should help companies like Kik who up until now have been serving a space that only a small percentage of people likely knew or cared about, private messaging.
Nobody knows there is something better than texting available. Nobody knows that Kik exists. Well, Apple & iMessage are about to blow up the “private messenger” space. In an ideal world, as the market grows, Kik goes along with it.
This is a sound point of view contrasting the assumption that when Apple (or anyone with weight behind them) enters a market they destroy the incumbents. This jives with what we’ve heard from other app developers.
More innovation from the Windows Phone 7 team.
Microsoft is continuing to innovate with Windows Phone 7. It’s great to see something from Microsoft that carries with it some excitement around features and design. Beginning with Metro, Microsoft has shown great care in their use of typography, motion, and a simplified aesthetic, which they describe as content not chrome.
Now with the upcoming release of Windows Phone dubbed “Mango”, we’re starting to see some fantastic and subtle in app touches. This is really highlighted with Threads, which aggregates the conversations you’ve had with friends across multiple networks.
Example, your text thread may contain content from multiple networks, such as SMS, Facebook, and more (pictured below).
You can easily see within Threads what networks your friends are on so you can connect with them right away (as shown below).
Presumably, there’s some routing feature in Threads which helps you select an active network for your friend but even without this, you can get a feel for how Microsoft is starting to show some smarts with keeping you connected in easy, intuitive ways.
Hey there, 2011!
2011 is off to a heckuva start!
We’ve got work in the pipeline for Web Foundation, NuLayer, Jet Cooper, blogTO, and a whole host of other great companies and people. Everything from desktop to Web to mobile apps.
We’re pretty well settled in our new Richmond and Spadina office space.
And we just received word that our (Jon Lax and I) Abolish the Hourly, How Value Pricing Wins Clients SXSW talk has been accepted, so we’ll be sharing some success stories with the world come March.
Apple’s iOS and the mobile market.
There’s a lot of talk about iOS market share and how the mobile market will shape up over time, particularly with Windows Phone 7 entering the market soon. That said, Brandt Dainow’s impressively long “Lessons for Apple” is painfully weak in its assumptions and rather ridiculous conclusions. Let’s take a look at his take on Apple, iOS, and the mobile market and see if we can’t make some sense of it all.
The mobile app market.
With Apple’s App Store and mobile apps on Android, Blackberry and the soon to be released Windows Phone 7 providing access to tens of millions of on the go customers, there’s a good chance you may be interested in moving your content from Web and into the proprietary app market.
Sadly, mainstream media is already on the app market doomsday bandwagon with Fast Company’s “Expert Blogger” Aaron Shapiro pontificating about “The Great App Bubble”. Backing his leaps of logic up by making statements that don’t correlate to his points, Aaron looks to be on a mission to save companies from this impending app bubble, where small businesses implode, VC money is lost, and developers are left homeless. He’s discovered 8 signs of the impending app bubble, all centered around Apple’s slice of the market. Let’s have a look see:
Kipu features list and screenshots. Plus, all of Kipu in 2010, for free.
See more Kipu with the brand new features page.
And if you haven’t signed up for the beta yet, now’s your chance to get on the list for free and complete access to Kipu through 2010. Sign up here.
Around the Web.
Here are some links that have caught our attention recently.
The Wilderness Downtown
If you haven’t participated in this wonderful little project yet, we highly encourage following the link for a romp through your own backyard. You’ll need a modern web browser to keep up with the HTML5 magic, but it’s a beautiful thing.
The League of Moveable Type
Open source type, ready for your best print work or @font-face fun.
Why Free Plans Don’t Work
Selling your software as a service app and the trouble with the freemium upsell.
Don’t Be Ugly By Accident!
Data mining is fun. See what happens when a dating site takes user profile photos and compares them by camera, time of day, location and more.
Found anything interest recently?
Send us the good stuff via email at hello@yousayyeah.com or on Twitter @yousayyeah.
