Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled

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• What exactly is an iPhone application?

  Scoble mentions 3 new iPhone apps today from Newsgator, Bloglines, and Google. It's interesting that companies keep saying they are doing "iPhone development", when really these are nothing more than sites skinned to look more natural on the iPhone. The iPhone is the only mobile phone that gets special versions made for it, which is especially curious to me considering one of its big selling points is the full-featured Safari and a better browsing experience in general. My initial take is that these companies are just trying to ride the coattails of the amazing iPhone marketing. Mashable says "NewsGator hasn’t been so hyped in recent months, and all I ever hear about is Google Reader." Is it just an easy press release when you have nothing else interesting to announce? Or do these special versions really make a difference? (I don't have an iPhone... so isn't an entirely rhetorical question). Posted Jul 24 2007, 10:28 PM by Tim with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Rants, Gadgets, Things that amuse me, Marketing, Apple, Programming

• Podcast support in Windows Media Player 11

  There is one other issue I need to deal with before I can totally switch to Windows Media Player 11 - podcast support. Microsoft made the head-scratching decision not to include native podcast support - one area where iTunes really excelled. Someone wrote a plugin over the summer , but it doesn't work in WMP 11 and Vista and he's not maintaining it right now . There are countless other third party aggregators (Doppler is an old favorite), but I need to spend some time figuring it all out. My key requirements are: Automatic downloads (no manual intervention) Synchronization to the device (at most 1 click, preferably none) Removal of old podcasts (preferably removed from the device after they've been listened to, but I'll accept support for the last, say, 3 episodes - as long as Steve Gillmor doesn't break CalacanisCast into 17 parts). For those of you not using iTunes, how are you managing your subscriptions? Note: I'll update this post over time as I refine the strategy. Posted Dec 28 2006, 02:56 PM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Rants, Gadgets, Music, Blogging, Apple, Audio, Podcast

• Misbehaving Software: Zinio Reader

  Zinio Reader is a application that allows you to download digital magazines and view them in a magazine-like presentation, complete with turning pages. It is especially cool on the Tablet PC platform (indeed, it is preinstalled on many Tablets now). The only problem is that Zinio misbehaves when it comes to internet connection. You would think that software that is largely going to be used on the go, where one may or may not have a connection, would handle this situation a bit more gracefully. First, you get prompted because Zinio can't download, even when you've told it in the past to use the default IE settings. If you click ok, and don't have an active Internet connection, you are prompted with this message. Clicking Cancel isn't much better. What should have happened? Zinio should have tried to connect. If it didn't have a working connection, it should have silently logged it. If, like most AntiVirus software, it went x days without a working connection, notify me in an unobtrusive... Posted Jun 16 2006, 04:38 AM by Tim with | with no comments Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Gadgets, Things that bother me, Tablet PC, Misbehaving Software

• abletFactory releases OneNote EMR Toolkit

  The OneNote EMR Toolkit released last week would be a lot cooler if OneNote wasn't a black hole (via Tablet PC Buzz ). Posted Jan 04 2005, 11:17 AM by Tim with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Gadgets

• Tablet PC Development Talk @ NYC .NET Developer's Group

  Brad McCabe of Infragistics will be speaking (tonight) to the NYC .NET Developer's Group on “developing ink-enabled applications with the Tablet PC.” This discussion will focus on developing applications to take advantage of the managed ink libraries available with the Tablet PC SDK. In addition this talk will focus on the design considerations that must be taken into account when ink enabling an application. Some of these considerations include usability issues, layout issues, and performance issues. More details here . Unfortunately, I won't be able to make it - I have my last exam tonight. It does sound like an interesting talk though. If anyone is going and wants to meet up for a drink afterwards, please let me know. I should be out before 8pm and I'm roughly in the area. There will be much celebration once this test is behind me.. Posted May 20 2004, 08:39 AM by Tim with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Technology, Software Development, Gadgets, Tablet PC