Wanted: Chumby on iPhone

This was just a thought.  Wouldn't it be nice if there was an iPhone app that works like Chumby?  Sure most of the features that Chumby offers are available as separates apps on iPhone - i.e. weather, stream video, radio, news feeds.  What if there was a more integrated app and it would be able to stream contents you want?

For example, in the morning, it would stream and show you the headlines of news.  In the afternoon, it will start streaming photos of your friends from Flickr.  And towards the evening, it will display TV listings.  

Use your iPod touch as a Chumby.  That seems quite nice =)

Times - a pretty RSS reader for the Mac

I am still looking for a nice RSS reader solution.  Right now, Netvibes is what I use to view my RSS feeds.  A few weeks ago, I bought the MacHeist Bundle, which included Times, an RSS reader application for Mac.  

I read good things about Times, and I was quite excited.  I also took the time to look at and decide which feeds are must reads.  I realized I have quite a lot of feeds to go though, and it's taking too much time (although it's interesting and great when you don't really want to do any work...)  So I narrowed down the feeds and settled down with the following:

• Engadget
  
• TUAW 
  
• VentureBeat
  
• TechCrunch
  
• LA Times
  
• CNN
  
• Yahoo! News: Entertainment
  
• NYT: Movies
  

Using Times

So I thought I set up these feeds in Times, and read it in Times every morning.  I'll save Netvibes for coffee breaks =)  So I set up the feeds and put them in two pages (tabs) - Tech and News.  

Good parts:

• It looks great (check out the screen shot above).  The presentation is great.
  
• Right click on an article and you could post to Twitter, Delicious, Digg, and share on FaceBook
  
• There's also a "mail article" feature where it'll open up Mail, compose a message with the article.  
  

Places for improvement:

• When you start up Times, it takes sometimes for it to update all the feeds.  Meanwhile, it stills shows you the feeds from before.  Sometimes I forget it needs to load, and I would think that there seem to be no new entries, and I'd close it.  In Netvibes, it first displays loading for every feeds, and when it's done I know I'm looking at the latest.  But it's minor and I could live with this.  
  
• From time to time, switching tabs seems to be a bit sluggish considering I only have two tabs.
  

Wishlist

iPhone app that can sync with the desktop version

Lastly...

Times is $30 to purchase.  Personally, I feel it's a bit pricy for that price.  However, it definitely makes reading feeds a much more pleasant experience.  Definitely give it a test drive and see if this is your thing.   (I think you can try it out before your purchase.)  

Learning to make an iPhone App: Entry 2

Time sure flies.  It's already about a month since I wrote entry 1 for Learning to make an iPhone App.  So here's an update.

Done lots of reading, and finally, things are starting to make some sense.  It's certainly not something that can be acquired in a weekend.  Read and re-read these books.  Here are some notes on the books from my reading list.  

Beginning iPhone Development

Though the book expects you to have an understanding of objective-C, it does a great job of explaining how applications on iPhone works.  With the book, using the codes inside, and doing some tinkering, I was actually able to get some simple apps working.  I still didn't have enough knowledge of objective-C to know what's going around.  So I stopped and focused and getting a handle on objective-C.  So I went back  to Programming in Objective-C 2.0 and Learn Objective-C on the Mac.  

This book alone would not be enough for beginners, but it's definitely a must buy for beginners to iPhone.  

Programming in Objective-C 2.0 vs. Learn Objective-C on the Mac.  

Learn Objective-C on the Mac is more fun to read and the tone is more casual, but it requires that you are familiar with the language C.  I decided to pick up Learn C on the Mac, which is part of the series and the primer book for Learn Objective-C on the Mac and Beginning iPhone development.  I skimmed through Learn C on the Mac, returned to Learn Objective-C, but still found it a bit hard to understand.  

I would recommend Programming in Objective-C 2.0 over Learn Objective-C on the Mac.   The tone is more textbook-like, but it is comprehensive.  The nice thing is that it does not assume you know C.  I have this book on Kindle, but I'm thinking of getting the actual book as well.  

Learn C on the Mac

I decided to pick this book up because its author was the same as Beginning iPhone Development, which I really liked.  I also reasoned since objective-C is based on C, having some knowledge of C would better help me understand objective-C.  

First, the book assumes you are a complete beginner and goes through basic programming concepts.  I think it does a nice job of explaining very fundamental concepts.  I particularly like the chapter on parameters and pointers.  I also found the explanation of the #define directive and preprocessor in chapter 8 helpful.  

I recommend this book if you're a beginner.  As it is easy to understand and not as intense.  For me, after I read this book, and then returning to Programming in Objective-C 2.0, things were easier to understand second time around.  

Current Status

I'm currently working my way through Programming in Objective-C 2.0 to get a better grasp of the Foundation Framework.  After that, I will return to Beginning iPhone Development, and plan to take another shot at building some simple apps.  

Hopefully I'll have an entry on my first app soon.  

Lastly, links to the books are in my previous post here if you would like to check out the books.

Quick review: Apple Wireless Keyboard

I have used the most recent version of Apple's wireless keyboard for almost a year now.  And this is one of my favorite gadgets.  Here's a quick review.  

What's good:

• The design: it's compact, it's thin, and it's elegant.  
  
  
• Comfortability:  Although it's not complete flat, but the flat keys and the small angle of the keyboard provides a very nice typing experience.  I took out my old Apple wireless keyboard and I realized how much stress it had on my wrist.   I think once you get used to typing on this keyboard, you really can't go back to the traditional keyboards.  
  

What's no so good:

• Lacking the number pad:  I was used to using the number pad for entering numbers especially, so that's one thing I really miss.  It's really a pity that there is not wireless version with a number pad.  If you're absolutely need number pad, I suggest going with the wired version.  
  
  
• The function key row shares with the one-touch access keys to Mac features such as brightness and volume.  Although it would increase the size and it would not be consistent with the notebook keyboard layouts, but since it's primarily used at home, I wished they separate the function key rows and create a new row for the one-touch access keys.  The one touch access keys to control things like volume, iTunes, and brightness is really convenient, but I also use the function keys quite often.  I have one touch access on as default, so I have to hold down the fn key on the lower left to use the function keys.  
  

On my wish list:

Since the wireless keyboard is quite portable, I wish one day I could pair it up via Bluetooth with my iPhone.  That would be awesome!  

Conclusion

If you don't have much space on your desk and you don't mind not having a number pad, I fully recommend this keyboard.  (Of course, you'll need a Mac.)  If you haven't used a recent Mac notebook that features this kind of keyboard, be sure to try it out at an Apple store to see if you like the touch and feel of the keys.  Personally, I think it's let stress on the wrist, and that's a good thing =)

Thanks for reading!

Skype on iPhone and iPod touch quick impressions

Just downloaded Skype for iPhone and iPod touch, and tried receiving a call on it with my iPod touch using my iPhone earphones.  I had a conference call with 2 other friends.  The quality was good, but the other callers said that quality from my end wasn't as good as compared to on my computer.  

The things that aren't so great:

• you have to keep the app on all the time to receive calls and messages (the iPhone OS 3.0 version would probably have push notifications)
  
• you can't voice call on a 3G network with iPhone (though if you have 3.0 beta iPhone OS, rumor has it you can.  I'm guessing that will be fixed soon because carriers won't be happy for sure.)
  

But overall, I gotta say it's pretty cool.  I remember about a year ago I was shopping for a wifi Skype phone, and luckily, I didn't buy one =)  

It's too bad the touch doesn't have a mic, then it would very much function like a wifi Skype phone.  It seems that 3.0 will enable the touch to have Bluetooth support.  Hopefully, we can use Bluetooth headsets to answer calls.