After Apple CEO Tim Cook announced their newest offering of iPhone, it was immediately clear that fans and commentators alike were disappointed that he did not announce the iPhone 5. My question is simply, “Why?”
First of all, Apple do not conform to usual naming conventions, which is exemplified by the fact that their most recent operating system, Mac OS X Lion, is numbered 10.7, and not 11 (or rather 17, as it’s the seventh Mac OS X to be released), so it strikes me as odd to expect them to do so now.
Secondly, while it might not conform strictly to how they have been naming the previous iterations (iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4), it does make a kind of sense. I also suspect that they were trying to tell their customers that it wasn’t the revolutionary iPhone that would, again, change everything, but rather an upgrade of the existing platform.
My last point is that it’s just a name. If they had not used numbering, but rather an apparently random string of names (I’m looking at you, HTC), I seriously doubt that there would be the same fuss. And the fuss, after all, is what Apple is best at.
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What’s in a name
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Changing where FotoWeb desktop is downloaded from.
By default, FotoWeb directs users to download the FotoWeb Desktop installer files from FotoWares servers. If you, as an administrator, should want to control exactly what version is made available to your users, you need to make a few changes.
Before you start, make a backup of FWDTInstaller.fwx, in case things should go wrong.
You will first need to download the installers for both Windows and Mac OS, and make these available on a server, using HTTP. The FotoWeb Desktop installers can be found on the FotoWare Update Center.
Then, find the file called FWDTInstaller.fwx. It is located in the Documents folder of the FotoWeb site. Open it in Notepad, or your editor of choice. Modify the URLs in the highlighted lines of the file, then save your changes.
Please note that you will need to make sure that the version of FotoWeb Desktop you make available is compatible with your version of FotoWeb.
Caveat lector: I used to work with support at FotoWare. This blog is my own space, I am not paid to write it. I write about FotoWare and FotoWare products because I believe in them. -
The Jobs is dead, long live the Jobs
I’m at a loss for words right now, other than to say that a visionary in our industry is no more. -
FotoWare Operations Center goes “SilverLighter”
Another of the changes brought about in FotoWare 7, SR 4, is a decreasing dependency on SilverLight in Operations Center. By running less of it in SilverLight, access to OPC is a lot quicker.
When you load OPC, it will load the front page first, then load the subsequent pages. If you switch from the settings pane to the log pane of a service, this is stored if you switch to a different service, then go back.
Additionally, as OPC loads all of the OPC pages, they will remain loaded as long as you have OPC open. This makes for not only quicker loading of OPC, but also for quicker work and switching between services.
Caveat lector: I used to work with support at FotoWare. This blog is my own space, I am not paid to write it. I write about FotoWare and FotoWare products because I believe in them. -
FotoWare Operations Center says “bye-bye” to IIS
One of the really nice new features in FotoWare’s fourth service release of version 7, is that the Operations Center is now run as its own service, shedding the need for IIS on the server running the FotoWare suite.
This has a few practical upshots: (more…) -
FotoWeb Desktop for iPhone
It has been an exciting few months, seeing the development of FotoWare’s app for iPhone. Launched at the Tech Days at Palma de Mallorca, it received many excited murmurs.
The app does a few things that have been asked for. First off, you an search in your FotoWeb archives, and create alerts for these searches, enabling you to quickly see when new images come into the system. In addition, it contains a star rating system, allowing you to rate photos on the go.
However, easily the most exciting feature is the upload feature. You can upload images straight from your iPhone (or iPad) to the archives, editing metadata before upload. The app is straightforward and intuitive to use, and, best of all, it just works!
The app stores the searches so that they are available from the search box, and searches can be updated by pulling down and releasing the search window. In viewing mode you have sideways scrolling between photos. When you reach the end of an archive (or the hits within one that match your search), you can move to the next archive, simply by continuing to scroll sideways.
The iPhone app will be available for free from the app store as soon as it has gone through the approval process, and is supported by FotoWeb 7 SR4. If you’re interested in seeing how it works, ask me, and I will give you a quick demo!
Note: the screenshots in this post are from the beta version of the app, the app will look somewhat different when uploaded to the AppStore. The Album and Pinned options on the front page have not yet been implemented.
Caveat lector: I used to work with support at FotoWare. This blog is my own space, I am not paid to write it. I write about FotoWare and FotoWare products because I believe in them.. -
FotoWeb: Notify administrator when a user registers to the site
One of the products I support at FotoWare is FotoWeb. I will post articles with tips and tricks in the various FotoWare applications, in addition to my usual subjects.
In order to enable automatic notifications being sent to a site administrator when a new user registers on the site, follow these steps: (more…) -
Survival – how news media should adapt to a challenging present
Over the last ten years, I have been an active consumer of online news media. This has cost me nothing, simply because the online news outlets I read are financed by ads. According to Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, this trend must change if news media are to survive. While I think that his approach – simply shutting people who don’t pay out – isn’t the way to endear himself to the consumers, I do think that he has a point.
Until recently, I had a subscription for the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten. About four months ago, I cancelled it, because I never read it anyway, mostly because I already knew most of what it said already, having read several online newspapers at home, at work and in transit. Will I ever take up a subscription to Aftenposten again? Maybe. But not for the paper version. Instead, I will gladly take up a subscription to their tablet app.
I say tablet app, instead of iPad, because I am in no way certain that I’ll still be using an iPad ten years down the line, but I most certainly will still be using a tablet of some kind. The first attempt at creating a good app for news consumption from a single source on the iPad comes from Wired magazine. Their app is free – as it should be. Instead, users pay per issue they download.
Let me just say this at once; reading Wired Magazine on the iPad just works. It’s quick, it’s comfortable, and gives me more value than the magazine itself ever did. Another example of an excellent solution is MacLife tablet edition, which also shows off the strengths of the iPad format for magazine consumption.
What makes me think that this would work for newspapers? I can only speak for myself. However, I know that I only really read a very small number of newspapers, most of which more or less conform to my political views. I want editorials on subjects that interest me, and I want to have it on the go. Having an app that, every morning, downloads the most recent edition, is just what I need and want. I can bring my pad, and the app, with me on public transport, reading the articles that interest me.
Why do I think that’s how they will save themselves? By offering a two-tiered system, the newspapers reach two markets. The model I’m envisioning is something like this: The first tier only offers headlines and a little detail, with no analysis. This should be free, or ad-funded. The second tier should have detailed articles with editorials and additional content, such as guest writers. I would willingly pay for a subscription to the second tier, which would give me more news, of higher quality.
What would I want from a newspaper app? At the very least, these three criteria should be fulfilled: (more…) -
The power of remembrance: TK
A while back, one of the blogs I read on a regular basis TK had an article about the authors’ own greatest weakness when it comes to writing, namely getting too caught up in research TK. While he admitted that it made for deep articles, it also meant that he sometimes lost the ideas in his mind.
That is, until he found this article TK by Cory Doctorow, and in turn wrote this article TK on the same subject himself. The idea goes something like this; instead of dropping what you are doing, go do the research, get the links and put them in the article, simply use the two letters t and k, in that order, and go on writing.
When you’re done writing, you simply go back and search for TK, do the research that you want, add the information and links, and hey presto, you’ve finished article, without losing your train of thought.
I have been doing something similar, but much more rime consuming, namely typing, in capital letters, what I needed to do, e.g. like so: ENTER LINK HERE. While fairly visible, it did mean that I lost these things, and sometimes have published blog posts with these markings in them.
For this article, and a few TK others TK I’ve written lately, I’ve been using the TK technique, and it has been great. In this article, to illustrate my point, I’ve left the markings in. Hopefully, this will make me a better writer in the long term. -
Another feature I’d love to see on the iPad
The iPad is great, and iOS is, well, neat. However, there are a few features from Android, that I would love to see on the iPad. Chief among these is widgets.
On my Android phone, I have widgets telling me how much power is left on my phone, the number of days until my wedding, and a photo of my fiancée, to mention a few. Others include widgets to turn on and off various services on the phone, set the sound profile, and turn airplane mode on or off:
On my iPad, the only things that could fall under the header of widgets, are the little numbers on apps like Things, Mail and Newsrack, telling me how many outstanding tasks, and unread emails and blog posts I have:
So having established that I want widgets, what do I want them to do? For one, I’d love to have a widget for toggling airplane mode, a countdown to my wedding day and one to toggle sound and rotation lock.
I’m sure there are other things you guys would want to see; feel free to use the comment field to share them! -
My number one wanted feature on Android
Lately, I have been writing quite a bit about features I’d like to see on my iPad. I do also have an Android phone (my second one, as a matter of fact), and, while it usually does most of what I want, there is one feature which is not built into it – screenshots.
On my iPad, and apparently also on the iPhone, you simply press the home and power buttons, and hey presto, you’ve got a screenshot. On Android phones, you have to either root the phone, or install the SDK, both of which are unsatisfactory solutions to me.
Now, apparently, this will come in Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread), but frankly, it should have been a feature since day one.