… to a great site – PDA24/7 – on their 5 year anniversary! We wish you all the success you deserve for the next 5.
Belated Congratulations …
Archives for January 2007
My Toaster Won’t Make Cookies!!
With every release of new technology a million so-called experts jump up and start shouting about all the things that are wrong with it. I’m as supportive of critical analysis as the next guy, but I’m also a strong proponent of “appropriate analysis.” Too often people attack new technology from the wrong direction. The iPhone and the UMPC are two great examples of this…
Identifying Installation Files
When I bought my newest PC, I started keeping my program installation files. I do this because I don’t necessarily want to upgrade if I need to reinstall something – this isn’t a cost issue; I’ve just learned that if I’m happy with a program version, I’m not necessarily happier with a new version (as is probably obvious by the fact that I’m still using the “classic” Windows interface, above).
But I’m not quite disciplined enough to remember to erase the installations when I decide not to keep a program, so I’ve got quite a collection at this point. And as a result of some PC problems over the weekend, I ended up trying to clean out the folder where I save them.
I’d never given much thought to the program properties of the installation files we make – I know that checking them for correct descriptions, version numbers and digital signatures is a part of our QA process, but pretty much had that in the “necessary evil” thought pile, or maybe even the “unnecessary overhead” one. But trying to figure out what installation files went with what programs on my PC made clear to me the value of that info. I didn’t have that many installation files that I wasn’t able to identify without running them, but the ones I had were pretty irritating (and I wasn’t in the best mood to start, given that my PC wasn’t booting well, or writing CDs).
Anyway, it’s nice to see that following the rules does have a point, at least once in a while.
Random iPhone Thoughts
Everybody’s thinking and writing about the iPhone, so here’s my 2 cents worth ….
As a consumer – I never bought an iPod because my 2 top requirements for an mp3 player are that I can use it with gloves on (this is Michigan, and I walk to work), and that I can easily replace the battery (I may not have been born with a battery curse, but I’ve definitely picked one up somewhere, batteries tend to die when I’m nearby). The iPod doesn’t let me do either of those, and I doubt the iPhone will either.
As a developer – there’s not a definite statement that the iPhone won’t allow third-party apps, but that’s the way it looks. Too bad for us, if it’s true.
As a market watcher – Microsoft imitates a lot of Apple’s successes, but I can’t see them ever adopting the “closed to third-party apps” approach. Michael Mace wrote about the consumer vs. professional audience, and I think he’s called that exactly right. In fact, I think he’s written the best commentary on the whole thing, and anyone who’s interested in the iPhone and hasn’t read that yet should do so.
Caching vs Copyright
One of the top requests we get for NewsBreak is that we download and cache the web pages that the “Read More” links go to. The reason people want this is that many news feeds don’t provide the full story. They just give you a teaser. If you’re off line this means you can’t read the entire story without going back online. Annoying, I know, especially for those feeds that only give you like one line of the story.
So why don’t we do it? I’m glad you asked! Read on for the full story…
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ePochette-eMappe-eCarpeta: Translating Software
Lots of people want to know if we’re going to release localized (that’s the same as “translated” for those of you not in the biz) versions of our software. So far we’ve always said “Sorry, not yet.” Of course this leads to the inevitable response of “WHY??” Good news! I’m about to tell you!
It comes down to one simple thing. Support.
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