The iPhone App Store
 

OK, let the flaming begin! Torch me, baby!

I just looked through a bunch of the apps, and I gotta say, they look fun and simple and useful. I don't have a Touch or iPhone to try them out, so I don't *know* how well they work. But having a big enough base to generate lots of third-party apps clearly has advantages.

So, while we have people waiting for tabbed browsing, someone made a Safari add-on for the iPhone that gives it tabbed browsing. There are word processors and spreadsheets. There's a trippy web-based service called Evernote into which you can throw any photo or web-clipping or info and it can be searched not only for tags but for any of the words that appear within the photo (or the business card or label or ...). It can be installed on Windows and Mac computers (though I'd never heard of it before) and the iPhone app lets users put info into their Evernote repository from the iPhone (like clippings from the web or photos taken with its camera) as well as use the iPhone to find items you've stored there.

Obviously there is a ton of other apps, too. Some of the "apps" turn out to be simply iPhone-optimized websites, which work fine for NITs, too, like iTranslator.


I remain a happy N800 user, but I think it's interesting to look at what they've got out there.

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Well... you said let the flaming begin.

I've heard of evernote before, on these very forums; apparently you can use it from the N800, though I never tried. (They have an indubitable hardware advantage with the higher-res camera, though.)

And I believe I have heard of a hack to get tabbed browsing, though it was a while ago, and assuredly not compatible with Diablo. I still don't get why anyone wants it on this size of screen; there's not that many pixels to waste, IMHO.

It is interesting, but the one thing I alternately curse and thank his Jobsness for is the emphasis on web-apps. It gives us web-apps, but it also encourages people to make platform-specific rubbish, instead of generic touch-friendly, small-screen-friendly apps. (They even got Google, who should have known better, IMHO, to do a shoddy job with iPhone GMail such that it was bad on any other resolution...)

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Worse yet is Amazon's mobile -- it drives me nuts!

I wish there were a simple way to toggle our useragent -- doing it through about:config takes forever.

Evernote, btw, seems to require a software download (of 51MB!), so I don't think it would have as much functionality without it if it worked at all. Also, it's free currently, and I downloaded it; but I haven't used it yet.

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Well, there is; apparently you didn't know...
You can go to about:config, do the tweak, and then it will give you a URL in the address bar; that URL, in fact, is the request that actually made that setting change.

So you can bookmark that URL, and have a folder of bookmarks that set the UA. Unfortunately, they do leave you at the about:config page, not back at the page you were on (but reloaded with the new UA), but still a lot quicker.

Dunno about evernote, as I said, I haven't used it at all. Sounded kinda cool, but not worth the bother for me...

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Yup, that's how I change my useragent quickly. As for Evernote you can use it without the app (you just won't get the offline notes when offline). I use it myself, though oddly the iPhone version of their website won't work with a useragent change (it shows up but it won't load the notes it just stays stuck on loading).

As for tabbed browsing, don't we have that already? Not through microb but one of the other alternatives? Firefox, or the browsers from KDE or Debian?

But yes, some of their applications are neat. I look forward to what Google Android has to offer in response (especially since we can install that on our tablets :P).

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Hmm... maybe I'm not looking at the right place but couldn't find any app that I would like to have, if I had iPhone.

I was looking for some SIP client or Skype or similar... And some sort of document viewers, just to give couple examples.

Most others (90% or more) are toy apps such as "virtual cat" or something like that. :rolleyes:

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

hey, if the virtual cat allows for as much interaction as nintendogs allowed, it can be a real winner in the right crowds...

as for browser tabs, i dont know...

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

It reminds me of palm because there are a lot of small, very specialized applications. Which is better than no apps.

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

What's the advantage to tabbed browsing in the tablet? Does it use less memory or something? 'Cause it seems pretty easy right now as it is, to either tap the browser icon or hit the home button to switch between open browser sessions.

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Never understood the whole tabbed browsing thing myself at all. Even on a full-sized screen. What's to stop me opening up a couple of browser sessions in new windows and just rapidly switching between them via the taskbar. Memory constraints you might say, but most modern machines have oodles of excess memory for that.

Not to hijack the thread, but I am much more interested, for example, in how people use the camera on the n810. Seems to me I always end up in the shot, or the picture is poorly composed as I am holding the n810 cack-handed, trying to shoot something I just can't see on the screen (since it's pointed away from me).

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Well, short of making a periscope, you N810 chaps are outta luck there; let's hope a saner design makes it into the N900.

As for tabbed browsing; AFAIK it's as good as identical in memory usage. The great thing about it on a desktop: Windows has historically been awkward WRT handling a great many windows in the taskbar. Not so bad on XP or Vista with a 2-3 line taskbar (or grouping, if that's your thing), but IIRC you couldn't do that (or maybe it somehow became annoying) back on 2k. Most other desktops aren't really a problem; on the tablet for sure, you've got grouping already, and it's in easy reach through the menus, as well. Also, on a desktop, you give up comparatively little room for a tab-bar; on the N800, even if it was a hassle to access multiple windows, I still don't think I'd want tabs...

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

They do have a document viewer. Though it can only read .docs and .xls right now (as far as I remember). As for SIP clients I think only the jailbroken ones have that for now.

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

They also have as many as 4 (FOUR!) flashlight applications right on the first day of the launch of the App Store!

how come we don't even have a WHITE html page somewhere on the web after so many years ???

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

We have "flashlight" app: Sketch.

Just open it and put full screen... :rolleyes:

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

You can use the browser's home page. :D

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

"Sketch"?! what a weird name for a flashlight app :rolleyes:

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

There's text on it.
I should configure it with no page at all .. but, alas, none of your solutions will turn the brightness fully on and keep it on :p

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Aside from typical apps... are there any mediaplayer that can play "all" video formats (Xvid/Divx/mpeg...) without conversion?

Is there Flash support coming finally?

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Oh, and :p!

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Pfft. I'll see your crazy and raise you the dumbest thing ever! :D

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

QF:p !

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Honestly, I have half a mind to package that up as a deb, just for fun. Only it's so utterly ******ed, that I'm not about to go through with the Extra's project, and I know what flak I'd get if I don't... ;)

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

What are you guys all doing in the dark that you need a flashlight so badly? Just turn on a light for god's sake... LOL

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Looking for the light switch?

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

I've got to admit using that platform they could easily be in direct competition with the ITs. I hope the N900 team takes note...

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

You need to think more like a modern user and less like a programmer. Users generally don't care about memory issues, they just want good behaviors that work smoothly and efficiently.

The value of tabbed browsing has nothing to do with memory constraints. Sure, you can open a bunch of different windows, but then you the user have to manage them -- layering, positioning, making sure you know what all you have open. Tabbed browsing is like taking all the papers on your desk and putting them in a single pile (with tabs on each page so you can find the page you want, of course): suddenly you have all the rest of the desk to put *other* items on.

(Further, good tabbed mechanisms allow you to drag a tab out of the window into its own window, or from one window to another. So you don't have to have just one pile, you can have three or four, thematically grouped.)

And of course, there are user behaviors that aren't viable without tabbed browsing. Every morning on my desktop box, I like to visit a few news, blog, and webcomic websites -- 56 of them, currently. Hand managing 4 or 5 browser windows is one thing, but managing dozens of them isn't really doable.

Even on the N800, I like to open a small number (4-5) of similar sites and pop back and forth between them, dealing with a few items on each cycle. Being able to (a) open a raft of windows at once rather than one at a time, and (b) being able to click in the current window on an always-showing and same-location UI item to switch between rather than having to open the popup on the sidebar and scan to find the one I want and then choose it, those would be browsing boons.

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

There is a SIP client

http://www.truphone.com/iphone/

I used to use the S60 version when I had an E70 and I LOVED it, they had free calls for about 12 months. The iphone iteration seems to be pretty limited (no speakerphone, no VOIP over 3G etc) and not as integrated as the S60 version.

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

interesting view: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...071101452.html

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Some of the points on that page are wrong...

For example: embedded youtube videos are rendered in the page and you tap them to bring up the fullscreen player. he states that its shown as a broken link, but he is wrong.

I would say my only disappointment with the iPhone is the lack of copy and paste.

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

for me a key selection criteria is Bluethooh. I sync at work with bluethooth, the same at home and my car has a media center (including phone) with bluetooth.

I cannot live without it now. I enter the car, and the phone automatically connects to the car sound system and I can take and make the calls with voice commands (and avoid the 800 euro fine for using the phone while driving ;-)

Why Apple decided to keep bluetooth out?

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

im guessing your cars media center acts as a giant hansfree. if thats the case, then it should also work with the iphone. as for syncing, exchange server or mobileme? hell, if you can get away with it you can install itunes and sync via that (the more i look at it, the more itunes is becoming the new heart of the apple ecosystem. quite independent of the ones mighty mac).

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

At work (I work in a large corporation) we use Outlook for email (I sync with my N95 using bluetooth) (I also have the possibility of a blackberry connection), at home it is the same environment. I do not have itunes installed at home or at work.

How could I connect with I-phone in my car? The connection is done via bluetooth. (I keep the phone on my pocket when I enter the car). My wife's phone also connects to the car system (the car system allows a maximum of 4 phones).

By the way, while in the car, if I play music on N95 (with 8G microSD) , the music plays on the car sound system via bluetooth (works as headphones).

In hate to use cables (even USB cables).

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Music over Bluetooth is done with the A2DP protocal. Which the iPhone doesn't support (strange isn't it? The evolution of a mp3 player that's suppose to be advanced in technology not having AD2P support?). I hope Apple enables it (or a hacker), simply because to me that's weird (and I don't even want to get an iPhone lol).

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

Speaking of bluetooth - did anyone try the DSP accelerated A2DP in garage.maemo.org? I can't 'cause I don't have such headphones. :(

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

im waiting for a single deb install, that is unless i have missed some news...

Re: The iPhone App Store
 

No, there is a bluez-utils.deb, a modules gz and a script to install them. Dunno why he isn't doing it with two debs.