Category Archives: Technology

Hidden iOS URL Keyboard Gem

Posted by David Boike on August 28, 2011 1 comments

For a long time I thought that the addition of a “.com” button on the iOS keyboard was a fantastic idea.  But what about .net, .org, and .edu domains?  Where’s the love for them?

I got to thinking, wouldn’t it be awesome if you could hover over the .com button and get a popup with options for the other common top-level domains?

Turns out the Apple engineers were way ahead of me.  Give it a shot sometime!

On my iPad (set to English/US keyboard layout of course) hovering over the .com button gives me additional options for .net, .org, .us, and .edu.  It does make me wonder if I would get something like .co.uk if I had a British keyboard setting.

What you apparently can NOT do is take a screenshot with the popup menu activated.

Stuck between Netflix and a hard place

Posted by David Boike on July 13, 2011 3 comments

There are two types of people in the world right now: those who are angry at Netflix and those who don’t have Netflix.

Like everyone else, I received the email yesterday notifying me that as of September 1, 2011, my $10 Netflix plan that includes 1 DVD at a time and online unlimited streaming will be discontinued. Instead, they offer separate plans for DVDs and for streaming.  1 DVD at a time will now cost $8, and unlimited streaming will now also cost $8.  There is no discount for bundling, so if I want to continue the same level of service, it will now cost me $16 per month.

It’s not the money that bothers me. Prices were bound to go up.  Maybe this is a pretty severe jump all at once, but it’s not completely unexpected.

What bothers me is the false choice it represents. If money does indeed talk (and I believe it does) then Netflix is asking me to choose from these options:

  1. I like getting DVDs from you, but I don’t care for your streaming service. Please take my money and keep the DVDs coming.
  2. I love your streaming service, but DVDs in the mail is so 2003. Please take my money and let me stream to my heart’s content, but don’t make me walk out to the mailbox.
  3. I like DVDs and I also like streaming, and I’m willing to pay more money for both.
  4. Netflix, you suck. Cancel my subscription.

I don’t believe that any of these four options correctly captures my real intent:

I would be willing to pay $16 per month, maybe even more, just for the streaming service, provided that the streaming selection didn’t suck.

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OMG the DVR died!

Posted by David Boike on November 16, 2010 None comments

Our DVR died of hard drive failure the other day. It was like losing a member of the family.

We installed new flooring in our living room which meant moving all the furniture out. Now, I was careful. I’m a computer guy; I know there’s a fragile hard drive in there. I unplugged it, as I was told, and waited far longer than the 10 seconds they say to wait until it’s safe. Then I still treated it with the care I would afford a newborn, gently placing it in a safe location until the flooring project was complete.

When we plugged it back in it told us that the hard drive had failed and that we were essentially screwed.

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Hey Apple, Your Push Notifications API Sucks

Posted by David Boike on October 19, 2010 2 comments

I’ve been an Apple fanboy for years. I grew up programming in BASIC on an Apple IIGS. I love my iPhone to death. However, I am not a member of the Church of Jobs that believes Steve can do no wrong. Now I’m a software developer and I appreciate a good, clean, easy to use API, and Apple falls short.

But fear not Apple! You may already have two push notification command formats on the books, but keep reading and I’ll suggest a third that won’t leave developers frustrated and angry with you.

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The iPad: Your Punctual Lover

Posted by David Boike on July 12, 2010 1 comments

Even though I’m a Windows-based developer, I grew up the son of a teacher and an Apple fanboy. While I like to think I’ve become more balanced since my youth, I still remain a fan of their products. My wife has a MacBook Pro which makes my Dell laptop jealous, and I love my iPhone to death.

When Apple announced the iPad, like many my reaction was along the lines of “OK that’s cool, but what do you use it for?”

I still haven’t bought one, but little things I hear keep inching me closer to the inevitable point where I’m sure I will break down and buy one.

My wife and I have friends who own one, and say it makes a great living room computer. The iPhone, while handy and always nearby, still isn’t big enough for some things, and the iPad gives you that real estate for casual web surfing and blog reading on the couch.

And now Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, has bought an iPad, and I think he sums it up perfectly:

A regular laptop is like your boss: always making you wait before giving you busy-work assignments. The iPad is more like a punctual lover. It’s always ready for fun.

Check out Scott’s full post: The Amazingness of Instant.

The New Stupid iPhone/Android Flame War

Posted by David Boike on June 30, 2010 1 comments

I recently saw links to these two videos (one pro-HTC EVO, the other pro-iPhone) from several members of my Facebook network, and had a curious sense of déjà vu.

Warning: the videos contain language you may not necessarily want your children to hear.

While these vids are kind of funny to watch, I was instantly teleported back across time and space to about a decade ago to the height (at least, in my experience) of the Mac/PC flame war. Mac users were stupid because you couldn’t do anything for business or run Word. Windows users were stupid because their computers couldn’t do graphics and were soulless idiot boxes that couldn’t handle file names longer than 8.3.

This was of course before Apple had life infused back into it by Steve Jobs’ return, along with the successes of the iMac and iPod, and before Windows had some of its shine taken off by the embarrassment that was Vista. However, by now, most of those differences have largely evaporated. You can use Word on both. You can do graphics on both and you can do business applications on both, and Get a Mac advertisements (which have now been canceled) and their Windows counterparts aside, it really doesn’t matter – people use what they like and it’s OK.

So now the big flame war has been miniaturized to fit in our pocket in the form of smartphones, and it’s equally as stupid.

Here’s a crazy idea:

Buy whatever phone will make you happy. It really doesn’t matter.

What a crazy notion. It really doesn’t. In the end, I can buy whatever phone I want (full disclosure, I own an iPhone 3G and an upgrade to an iPhone 4 is most likely in the not-too-distant future) but the important part is just because I prefer the iPhone doesn’t mean you have to as well, and that choice does not make you a moron.

Some people want their megapixels, want to customize the crap out of the interface, and don’t want to be on AT&T. Fine. Go do that. Some people think the iPhone platform provides more polish and ease of use. Fine, that’s awesome too!

As a software developer, all this fragmentation in browsers and mobile devices does make my job harder, but at the end of the day I’m glad there is competition so that no platform can rest on its laurels and fail to bring me cool new features to geek out over.

So flame on if you must, but ask yourself: Does it really matter?

QR Codes: The lamest thing to never reach critical mass

Posted by David Boike on May 26, 2010 3 comments

Last week in our development team meeting we had a discussion about QR Codes and whether or not there was a good reason to include QR reader functionality in future products.

For those unfamiliar, the short version (stolen from the Wikipedia linked above):

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response”, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

My personal opinion, which I espoused during that meeting, was that QR codes are, for lack of a better word, stupid, that they would never appear in anything mainstream, had no potential return on investment, and that generally they were a complete and utter waste of time and we should go out of our way to avoid allocating any development time toward it.

And so what do I see in the Sunday paper just a few days later?  Best Buy included a QR code on the front page of their Sunday ad.  Thanks Best Buy.  Big help.

My typical admiration for Best Buy and all the things they have to sell me aside, I’m sticking with my opinion.

Here’s an image of Best Buy’s Sunday ad from May 23, 2010:

Best Buy 5/23/2010 Ad with QR Code

Best Buy 5/23/2010 Ad with QR Code

In order to use this thing, here’s what you have to do:

  1. Text BBYAPP to an SMS shortcode.
  2. Receive a text message in return.
  3. Download the app teased in the message.
  4. Run app.
  5. Take a picture of the QR Code.
  6. Wait for it to process.
  7. Be sent to a website to watch a video trailer for Super Mario Galaxy 2.

By the way, the website forced you to click a link to say whether you had an iPhone or an Android device.  No browser detection.  How very low-tech.

If that sounds hopelessly complicated, that’s because it is.  This could have been accomplished by asking the user to visit bestbuy.com/mario (not a real link).

This fails a pretty simple metric I have for evaluating new software and technology.  If it feels cumbersome and overcomplicated to me, a software developer and self-proclaimed uber-geek, then it can never find general acceptance among the masses?

Of course, this isn’t a perfect use of QR Code technology.  QR codes should follow the Three Rules of QR Codes.  Briefly, they must 1) have a good mobile-device-appropriate landing page, 2) have a tiny url, and 3) lead to something valuable.  This Sunday ad doesn’t outright fail, but doesn’t exactly achieve stellar marks on #1 or #3.  The landing page is somewhat mobile ready, but should be able to tell iPhone and Android apart, and have some option for other devices.  More at issue is Rule 3 – a video is not all that valuable.  Offer me 10% off Super Mario Galaxy 2 and then maybe we have something to discuss.

To be fair, Best Buy is improving; previously they hung a QR code in a storefront window in New York City and this was an even bigger affront to Rule 3: it was only a link to the Best Buy mobile website.

So I maintain that QR codes will not catch on, because they can never reach the mainstream.  They are a digital chicken and the egg paradox.

  1. In order for end users to accept QR codes, they must be commonplace.  They must permeate our entire existence.  The term “QR” must be as well understood as “URL” is today.  My grandma (who uses the Internet and is a pretty hip lady, in my opinion) must know and understand what a QR code is and what it does.  “QR” must be a verb and be added to the Oxford dictionary.
  2. In order for publishers to make widespread use of QR codes, end users must have gained the acceptance of them.
  3. See #1.

So it won’t happen.  Maybe UPS or Fedex will use them in their package tracking (actually I think one or both might already) but I won’t know what it means and I won’t care to as long as my latest order from Amazon makes it to my door.  But it will never reach critical mass.  And knowing this, I’d sure like to avoid wasting my time writing software to support it.