I found a free IRC client called IRC999 for iOS. I tried it out and it's mostly very intuitive to use. You can configure the server, port and nickname/password you wish to use and the channels you wish to join (autojoin is an option) and you're in.
The interface adapts itself to landscape/portrait orientations. In landscape mode you can see the status of various channels on the left pane, with the conversation of the current channel on the right pane; in portrait mode, the current channel takes over the entire screen. It has a few customizable options including font size (S/M/L).
It can list the nicknames in the current channel, but the list is unsorted; there is no tab-completion for nicknames.
1. Usability: .5
2. Usefulness: .5
3. Looks: 1
4. Enjoyability: .5
June 19, 2011
June 12, 2011
19th Century British Library Book Collection
The British Library has made some of it's collection available for browsing and downloading ofr offline reading via an iPhone app (compatible with iPad iOS4).
Titles include classic novels, works of philosophy, history and science digitally scanned in high resolution.
Titles include classic novels, works of philosophy, history and science digitally scanned in high resolution.
June 11, 2011
Roger Ebert's Great Movies App
Ebert's movie reviews from his Great Movies books have been collected in this iOS4+ Great Movies app for iPhone with links to Netflix and Amazon.
Because of the amount of text involved, I would definitely wait for the Universal App if you have an iPad as reading pixel-doubled text on the iPad is painful.
Because of the amount of text involved, I would definitely wait for the Universal App if you have an iPad as reading pixel-doubled text on the iPad is painful.
June 8, 2011
iOS5 Music App combines iTunes+iPod Apps
Cult of Mac has a screenshot tour of the new Music App in iOS5 which combines the functionality of the separate iTunes (which I always had disabled preferring insted to use iTunes on the desktop) and iPod Apps in previous iOS releases.
Apple Design Award iPad Winners
The three apps that won the 2011 Apple Design Award in the iPad category are:
- The game ($10), Osmos
- Al Gore's interactive book ($5), "Our Choice"
- Party app ($20), Djay
Thoughts on iOS5/Lion/iCloud
On June 6th, Steve Jobs gave the WWDC 2011 keynote address and announced Lion, iOS5 and iCloud (the replacement for the stillborn MobileMe).
I am looking forward to iOS5 (due sometime in the Fall) more than Lion (due in July, upgrade from Snow Leopard for $30). iCloud is interesting, but I don't know if Apple can pull it off this time, given the past failures.
The biggest and most welcome surprise was the un-tethering of the iDevices from the PC. iDevices with iOS5 will "work" out-of-the-box without first being required to be connected to a PC. I can give a child an iDevice and it will work after a minimal setup.
The un-tethering also means freedom from being held hostage by that pig of an application called iTunes, which surprisingly was the original reason I joyfully switched to a Mac after using iTunes on Windows/XP, but which became a tiresome annoyance since it was co-opted (via the AppStore) to do more than its share of heavy lifting. Sub-textually, I look forward to iCloud as a replacement for iTunes.
The second surprise was iMessage (instant messaging including video and photos via Wifi or 3G between iOS5 devices securely (?) through Apple's servers) which aims to destroy the BlackBerry Messaging system, the last feature that RIM could claim as a distinguishing feature of its devices and kills the SMS cash-cow that mobile carriers have been milking. (I get the distinct impression that Apple (and Google) want to bypass the carriers entirely. I can see Google becoming/spinning-off a network carrier company.)
Unfortunately, iMessage also creates a walled garden of iOS devices. (Update: AppleInsider reports that iMessage is built on the open-standards XMPP. Update 2: iMessage can be used for group SMS) I am certain that Google will have a similar solution soon, but the lack of interoperability between everyone's messaging systems disappoints me.
Aside: Microsoft recently purchased Skype, to compete with Apple's Facetime and Google's WebRTC. If the past is any indication, Skype will be dead in 2 years (there were two major uncheduled outages (no doubt due to infrastructure re-configuration) after the purchase. Even though Facetime is an open standard, Google has chosen an alternative solution.
I would like to predict that in the near future, there will be a start-up that will magically allow iOS devices to message Androids and Facetime users to chat with Android users.
I am looking forward to iOS5 (due sometime in the Fall) more than Lion (due in July, upgrade from Snow Leopard for $30). iCloud is interesting, but I don't know if Apple can pull it off this time, given the past failures.
The biggest and most welcome surprise was the un-tethering of the iDevices from the PC. iDevices with iOS5 will "work" out-of-the-box without first being required to be connected to a PC. I can give a child an iDevice and it will work after a minimal setup.
The un-tethering also means freedom from being held hostage by that pig of an application called iTunes, which surprisingly was the original reason I joyfully switched to a Mac after using iTunes on Windows/XP, but which became a tiresome annoyance since it was co-opted (via the AppStore) to do more than its share of heavy lifting. Sub-textually, I look forward to iCloud as a replacement for iTunes.
The second surprise was iMessage (instant messaging including video and photos via Wifi or 3G between iOS5 devices securely (?) through Apple's servers) which aims to destroy the BlackBerry Messaging system, the last feature that RIM could claim as a distinguishing feature of its devices and kills the SMS cash-cow that mobile carriers have been milking. (I get the distinct impression that Apple (and Google) want to bypass the carriers entirely. I can see Google becoming/spinning-off a network carrier company.)
Unfortunately, iMessage also creates a walled garden of iOS devices. (Update: AppleInsider reports that iMessage is built on the open-standards XMPP. Update 2: iMessage can be used for group SMS) I am certain that Google will have a similar solution soon, but the lack of interoperability between everyone's messaging systems disappoints me.
Aside: Microsoft recently purchased Skype, to compete with Apple's Facetime and Google's WebRTC. If the past is any indication, Skype will be dead in 2 years (there were two major uncheduled outages (no doubt due to infrastructure re-configuration) after the purchase. Even though Facetime is an open standard, Google has chosen an alternative solution.
I would like to predict that in the near future, there will be a start-up that will magically allow iOS devices to message Androids and Facetime users to chat with Android users.
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