iPhone App Store and 2.0 OS Initial Miscellany

An un-ordered list of observations regarding iPhone OS 2.0 and the freshly-launched iTunes App Store.

### MobileMe, Exchange and Push Data

– When composing an email there is now a CC/BCC/From field in Mail. Tapping it, expands the fields, from which you can not only select recipients to be CC-ed or BCC-ed, but (assuming you have more than one email account set up) you can also select which account you’re sending the email from. Regardles of which account you were in when opening a new email message.

– Pushing contacts, calendars and email currently only work when initiated on my phone. In Mobile Mail I can delete an email and within seconds it is deleted on my laptop. The reverse is not true.

The speed only works for my Exchange email account. My MobileMe calendars, contacts and mail do get over-the-air syncing but not instantaneously yet. Emphasis on the “yet”, considering the .Mac to MobileMe switch has been over a 24-hour process. (Lord knows how much coffee has been consumed at the MobileMe HQ in the past day.)

**Update:** MobileMe is up (for now), but my MobileMe related info is still not pushing. My guess is the servers are slammed.

– Selecting to push calendars over MobileMe only sent me my MacBook Pro’s native iCal calendars. Unfortunately, those which I’m subscribed to (National Holidays and Basecamp Milestones) are no longer in my iPhone.

– Setting up my work’s exchange account was incredibly simple. Much, much more simple that before. The exchange support seems to be flawless. I now have push email for work, which I honestly don’t know is a good thing or a bad thing.

The App Store

  • Initial impression of the the iPhone’s app store is that it is first-rate. It’s easy to navigate, and too easy to buy stuff in.
  • You can download apps from WiFi or EDGE. The apps I downloaded over EDGE downloaded pretty quickly.
  • There are 52 productivity apps (8 of which are for “getting things done” and use a check-mark icon. The Abacus app boggles my mind.
  • Clicking a link to the desktop version of the iTunes App Store from Mobile Safari doesn’t open the iPhone’s app store. Instead you get an internal server error from Apple.
  • Some apps, like AIM and PayPal, have additional settings which can be accessed in the System Settings menu, at the bottom.
  • Re-Downloading an App Store App. John Gruber notes:

    If you accidentally delete an app you’ve bought, you can re-download it for free. The App Store UI doesn’t make this clear, but Apple describes it in this KBase article. What you do is act like you’re buying it again — tap the app’s price, and the App Store will recognize that you’ve already purchased it and ask if you wish to download it again. You can also do this from iTunes, to re-download an app to your computer that you originally purchased on your iPhone.

Other Miscellany

  • My iPhone now has the iPod Touch’s Contacts App. It is the exact same as opening the Telephone App and clicking Contacts.

    If I am scrolled half-way down in my Phone’s contact list and then quit out and open up the Contacts App, it will refresh itself to match, and thus it too will be scrolled half-way down. Curiously though, the reverse does not work. Meaning if I scroll back up to the top in the iPod-version Contacts App, the change is not reflected when I go back to the Contacts list in the iPhone’s telephone app.

    Oddities aside, I’m assuming the app is there because I downloaded the unofficial 2.0 OS update yesterday. Why it would be part of the official iPhone 2.0 OS is beyond me. I have a feeling when the official 2.0 OS update is released later today (presumably) that my iPhone will want to update itself.

    UPDATE: I re-installed the “official” 2.0 upgrade, and the Contacts App is still there. So now it lives in the back corner of the 3rd screen, next to its new friend Stocks.

    UPDATE 2: Nate Bird points out that with the dedicated Contacts app you can now add or edit a contact while talking on the phone. It’s true.

  • iPhone can now take a screenshot by pressing (not holding) the home and lock buttons simultaneously. The screen fades to white, fades back in, and the screenshot is now in your camera roll.
  • Apple’s Remote App is brilliant, and I can only imagine how much more I would enjoy it if I had an Apple TV setup. I noticed is that when selecting an artist or album to play in iTunes via Remote, a new playlist appears in iTunes titled “Remote” and it has the album you’re listening to in it. When switching to listen to a Podcast or watching a movie the playlist is deleted.
  • Fortunately Mobile iCal (or whatever it’s called) now supports multiple calendars. Using the same colors as your Desktop iCal and MobileMe Calendar. Unfortuntely, no matter what the color is for an event, the text is white – making light-colored calendar events nearly impossible to read.
  • When typing in a password you now see the last character you entered. Just before saving it, an 8-character password which ended with the letter “w”, would look like this: •••••••w.
iPhone App Store and 2.0 OS Initial Miscellany

Why Wait?

  • iPhone 2.0 software update is available for bootleg download. More info on MacRumors.
  • MobileMe system update is aviailable for bootleg download. More info on GearLive.
  • The iTunes App store is up, though not announced. You can find it by searching on iTunes for an application, or through an iTunes App Store link – like the previous one, or this one for Super Monkey Ball.

I’m installing the 2.0 software now, and so far so good. Also, the MobileMe update ran fine, but the Apple servers are still off-line.

What are the apps I grabbed already?

Why Wait?

If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow

If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow –

Super insightful article, with some advice on how to respond when being mysteriously interviewed by an Apple V.P..

People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.

(via Gruber)

If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow

The Task Notebook

Though my whole professional and personal life seems to exist on my laptop, I will never be a completely paper-free individual. My to-do list has always existed on paper. And it always will.

Not only do I have a fond affection for writing on real paper with a real pen, there is also a subtle sense of gratification whenever I draw a black line through an accomplished task. A gratification that I don’t get when clicking on a check box or tapping the delete key.

Using a paper based to-do system is not the “greenest” thing I could do (don’t tell Al), and is starting to feel old fashioned in this PDA GTD world. So why am I still carting around my notepad?

Being organized is a learned behavior.

I sometimes teach a class to new staff members around here about how to manage their time. After the first couple hours of groundwork information (you’d be surprised how many people don’t have an idea of how to schedule their time), I emphasize what – in my opinion – is the greatest advice of all time for time management and organization: do what works for you.

This advice goes for all sorts of organizational efforts. Such as keeping your email inbox manageable, and making sure you don’t miss that important date.

We all think a little differently, and we all have unique quirks that make us who we are. Therefore, how we structure and organize our life should fit . . . our life.

Needless to say, I have been through a lot of notebooks in search of the perfect to-do list tool.

Not only do I need something I can write my task list on, I need it to take notes too. I need to draw in it. I need to cram excessive amounts of loose leaf paper in it. I need it to have character.

Necessity Necessitates the Necessities

For the first 25 years of my life my to-do list existed on my left hand. If something came to mind that I wanted to get done, I’d write it on my palm. (I wasn’t too busy in those days.)

Last February I built myself a bonafide Moleskine PDA notebook. It’s sole purpose was task management. And I swear, just the fact that I owned a task notebook made me busier. (It is amazing how many things you realize you need to do when you have a spot to write them down in.)

That small Moleskine was fantastic. It worked perfectly for over a year. It was handy, cheap and had grid-paper: the three most important elements in any good task notebook.

Handy

If my task notebook isn’t handy, it’s no good. Convenience is everything when you’re using something every day, everywhere. It’s a common misconception that size dictates handiness, but that’s not true. Handy means useful.

Gridded

I’ll never be able to use a notebook without lines. My handwriting inevitably starts to lean down to the bottom right corner of the page if I don’t have some pre-printed help.

But standard college ruled won’t do.

In seventh grade science I got hooked on grid paper. It has no top or bottom or left or right. You can turn it sideways or longways and it’s still right-side up. It’s fantastic.

Cheap

Cheap may be the least important, but it is never to be overlooked. You’d be surprised at how many folks get a nice, quality journal only to never use it in fear of wasting its pages. Now that is a waste of money if I ever saw one.

When looking for a task notebook you have to recognize the very nature of the notebook will necessitate throwing paper in the recycling bin.

Every hour or two I’m scratching something out. I’m constantly doodling notes, and tearing out sheets of paper to give away. If I hear a cash-register cha-chinging every time I do that it’s no good. If I feel like I’m robbing my notebook of all its character when I rip a page out, then it’s no good.

The right notebook must be guilt-free to destroy.

Evolving

About 3 months ago the Moleskine stopped being handy. Yes, it was small and portable, but no longer handy.

I’m a visual thinker and a verbal processor. Translated: the best tools for figuring out a solution to a problem is a person to listen while I draw on a white board. But if a white board isn’t around I need a sketch pad. Therfore I upgraded to letter-sized.

I started with a generic yellow pad like everyone else I see in management around here used, but it had one major flaw: it wasn’t grid.

I found a better solution at Walmart. A 150-page gridded goodness pad which has worked for the past month. However, the useful :: frustrating ration is quickly becoming exponential.

This pad stopped being useful once my to-do list was no longer able to be on page 1.

After I sat in a meeting and took some important notes on page 2, the next time I re-wrote my to-do list it had to be on page 3. Now it’s on page 11.

Time to find a new notebook.

Today I ordered a Levenger Circa Notebook. These guys may very well make the best day-to-day usable stationary in the world.

The Circa is a brilliant knock-off of the age old 3-ring binder idea. It comes with 100 sheets of letter-sized grid paper, on nice 60# text stock. It feels good to hold, and is a dream to write on.

What else is so gorgeous about the Circa is that my to-do list will always be on page one, and I won’t have to fold pages over the top binding to get to the page I want. It even folds over itself, and is infinitely accessorisable.

Will this be my final task notebook? I doubt it.

The Task Notebook

You Tell the Story

You Tell the Story –

What I love about so many of Joshua’s photos is that they are left wide open for the viewer to imagine the story that coincides. They’re like blank pieces of paper and Joshua hands you the pen.

This shot from the Seattle/Tacoma airport is just one of many that I could stare at imagining scenarios, stories and goofy things happening in.

There used to be more – like this one really mysterious shot from a laundry-mat – but Josh cleaned out his flickr stream a couple weeks ago. Though you can buy some of his choice prints online. (Don’t miss 11, 16 ad 20.)

You Tell the Story

Send Me Junk Mail, Please

Send Me Junk Mail, Please –

Domtar is a paper company, and they put out some excellent booklets and samples (a.k.a. junk mail) in their efforts to get me to use their paper. (Or influence my printer to start using it.)

I’m pretty sure I ended up on these guys’ database through my subscription to Print a few years ago, and they are only company ever who’s junk mail — the kind that gets hand delivered to your house by a mail man — I actually want to get.

If you get inspired by stellar design printed on rich, heavy paper that gets delivered to you for free, you may want to sign up for some free samples, too.

Send Me Junk Mail, Please