Twitter for iPad : Finally, an iPad Twitter app I can use without cursing the UI. If it detects a reply, it will show the conversation from the individuals included ( screenshot ). If it detects a URL, it displays the web page ( screenshot ). … Read the rest here
Building a Custom HTML5 Audio Player with jQuery : Ben Bodien, who also masterminds a lot of the jQuery, HTML5, and CSS3 material for Authentic Jobs , explains what it took to make Tim Van Damme’s audio player design for The Box a reality. … Read the rest here
CoachPad : I’ve not used it yet, but this looks like a nice app for all you coach dads out there. … Read the rest here
Apple to Provide Live Video Streaming of Today’s Event : I recall the last time we were able to watch a live-video Apple event. I believe it was for the launch of Newton back in 1994. On a serious note, this will be a first for everyone: The ability to watch it live with an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. /via Daring Fireball … Read the rest here
Gmail’s New ‘Priority Inbox’ Feature : Priority Inbox will use “a variety of signals to identify important email, including which messages you open and which you reply to.” To be rolled out next week. The announcement video is really well done. It’s brief, entertaining, and memorable. … Read the rest here
Google and Arcade Fire Team Up for HTML5 ‘Experience’ : This multi-window browser experience is probably unlike anything you’ve seen before, though eerily reminiscent of the Javascript-controlled browser window resizing and spawning we saw a decade ago (most notably with Flash sites). The big headline here is that it’s built with HTML5. I’ve not dived into this enough to understand precisely what components of HTML5 are being used, and Google’s official post doesn’t offer details either. Given every link and article I’ve seen pointing to this today mentions HTML5, somebody oughta give us the deets. Note: I’ve linked to the Wired article, as the actual site is getting hammered with traffic. … Read the rest here
I’m about to head out on a little vacation, but I realized this Wednesday marks ten years of archives here at SimpleBits. Actually, there were a few other domains that came before simplebits.com (robotcom.com and cederholm.org). I’d actually been publishing short, frequent updates for a few years prior to 2000, either by updating a .html file by hand or using a hobbled together home-grown CMS built with PHP and Perl. Those old posts are long gone, but there’s about to be 10 years of archives still preserved here and that’s rather dumbfounding when I stop and think about it. It’s likely dumbfounding because the last 10 years also happen to have been the most eventful I’ve ever had. They’ve been both terrifying and wonderful; educational and exciting; important and enlightening. … Read the rest here
WebKit HTML5 ‘search’ Inputs : A thorough overview of the support for input type=”search” and what can (and cannot) be customized for WebKit rendering. … Read the rest here
Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime : Matt Richtel, The New York Times: Even though people feel entertained, even relaxed, when they multitask while exercising, or pass a moment at the bus stop by catching a quick video clip, they might be taxing their brains, scientists say. ‘People think they’re refreshing themselves, but they’re fatiguing themselves,’ said Marc Berman, a University of Michigan neuroscientist. I hate to beat a dead horse, but for me, creative pausing continues to play an important role in maintaining mental acuity. … Read the rest here
David McCandless: The Beauty of Data Visualization : This 18-minute TED talk is worth watching. I’ve been following David’s site, Information is Beautiful , for some time now. His presentation is as informative and entertaining as the site. … Read the rest here
Apple Patent for Dual-Mode Touchscreen Desktops/Laptops : Chris Foresman, Ars Technica: Patently Apple recently discovered a patent application filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization earlier this year, which reveals that Apple has considered how both desktop and laptop computers could switch from a more traditional desktop UI best suited for use with a keyboard and mouse to a UI geared for touch input. Such machines could use a sort of hybrid between Mac OS X and iOS, switching UI layers for the most appropriate context. This is purely speculative, and I’m sure Apple will give the idea plenty of time to bake. But if the device were affixed to my desk, it might have little value for me personally. … Read the rest here
Subtlety, Deconstructed : The ever-sagacious Seth Godin: Subtle design and messaging challenge the user to make her own connections instead of spelling out every detail. Connections we make are more powerful than connections made for us. If Amazon and Zappos had been called ‘reallybigbookstore.com’ and ‘tonsofshoes.com’ it might have made some early investors happy, but they would have built little of value…. It’s tempting to turn the dial all the way to 11, the make everything just a bit louder. The opposite is precisely what you might need. … Read the rest here
Macworld: 25 Safari Extensions : Good list. Just installed a few of them. /via Daring Fireball … Read the rest here
HTML5 Boilerplate : Similar to HTML5 Reset , but a bit more robust. As with anything cookie-cutter like this, take time to understand what’s in play and use only what you need to. /via @christianross … Read the rest here
Eric Schmidt and Ivan Seidenberg: A Path to an Open Internet : The CEOs of Google and Verizon authored an opinion piece in The Washington Post today, which closes with this statement: There are hundreds of millions of Internet users in the United States, and no two companies should be so presumptuous as to think they can solve this challenge alone. It is up to policymakers to establish broadband policy for the country. We are eager to work with Congress, the FCC and other interested parties to get this right. We hope that our proposal provides some concrete ideas to move this process forward. … Read the rest here
Jason Grigsby: CSS Media Query for Mobile is Fool’s Gold : This is an interesting piece that debates the merits of using CSS media queries to build mobile-optimized experiences, tackling Ethan Marcotte’s influential article on adaptive design, “ Responsive Web Design ”. For the most part, I agree with Jason’s arguments about the context of mobile and hidden/unused files downloading in the background. These same two points are what led me to argue against handheld CSS in my book , and they remain valid in discussions about media queries, too. With the prevalence of wi-fi in daily life and the ever-increasing speeds of mobile networks, it would be easily to write off file size and download speed when creating mobile experiences. However, with such news as the elimination of unlimited data plans and this net neutrality thing , I think it’s safe to say network speed, latency, and cost will remain relevant to mobile discussions for the foreseeable future… Read the rest here
25 HTML5 Tips & Features : This is a good overview of HTML5. On the whole, doesn’t HTML5 feel like one massive code release that fixes all the Flash and Javascript hacks we’ve used over the years, e.g. the placeholder attribute for inserting hints into input fields? … Read the rest here
HTML5 Reset : Building on the work of Eric Meyer, Ethan Marcotte, and others, this reset package by Monkey Do is more than just a single style sheet. It includes an HTML5 document with rudimentary structure, CSS placeholder files, and a suggested folder structure. … Read the rest here
I’m not a big fan of acronyms in general but I like the word WWILF : What Was I Looking For. It’s such a webby word. You know the drill: you start looking at a Wikipedia page about zeppelin crashes and before you know it, you’re reading about ekranoplans and Dyson spheres . That’s wwilfing. Interestingly, there’s no Wikipedia entry for wwilfing. Maybe it should just redirect to the page about the World Wide Web . … Read the rest here
Google Multiple Sign-In : This new preferences setting will allow users to sign in to multiple accounts for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Sites, Google Reader, Google Voice, App Engine, and Google Code. I’m not seeing it in my account yet, but as with other Google upgrades, it’ll likely show up soon. Without seeing the integration, I’m unsure if this will negate my need for Mailplane , which offers multiple sign-in—and is about the only reason I’m using it. … Read the rest here