Category: Technology

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As part of my current Facebook hiatus, I have gone back to something I really enjoyed before I started spending far too much time on the social media site: reading blogs via an RSS reader and sharing my favorite stories with others.

My current RSS reader of choice is Fever, a self-hosted feed reader with a nice web and mobile web experience. Reeder 2 on iOS also supports Fever for those that like using an app instead of the mobile web interface. For me, using a reader makes it a lot easier to keep up with important sites and news outlets without having to filter through the noise of Twitter or Facebook. I also like that I have access to Fever’s database because I host it.

Fever includes sharing options within the web interface for Email, Delicious, Instapaper, and Twitter, but that still does not provide the ability for me to keep track of every link I have shared like Google Reader used to do. That is where a new web application created by Dave Winer comes in to play. Radio3 is a linkblogging tool that maintains an RSS feed of all shared links while providing the ability to automatically post to Twitter, Facebook, and WordPress. The RSS feed makes it possible to keep track of my shared links in a standard format that I will be able to read well into the future.

Radio3 includes a handy bookmarklet that makes it easy to share the current browser window, but what if Fever and Radio3 could work together so I did not have to leave my feed reader? Well, they can! Fever has the ability to add sharing options as long as the service provides a URL to add new items, and Radio3 does just that.

To add Radio3 as a sharing option in Fever, perform the following steps:

1. Select Preferences from the Fever menu.
2. Click the Sharing tab.
3. Click the plus (+) button to add a new service.
4. Enter Radio3 in the Service Name field.
5. Enter the following in the Service URL field:
http://radio3.io/?link=%u&title=%t&description=%t

%u represents the site URL, and %t represents the site title. Fever also has a shortcut to include the excerpt that I suppose could be used for the description portion of the Radio3 URL, but I have chosen to use the title which seems to be the default behavior of the bookmarklet when no text is selected in the browser.
6. Enter r in the Key field.
7. Click Save.

FeverPreferences

That’s all there is to it. Radio3 can now be selected as one of the sharing options directly in Fever.

feversharing

This is a great example of two web apps working together to make reading and sharing a whole lot more enjoyable.

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My Dearest Apple,

It saddened me greatly to receive your email today regarding the ending of the Messages beta program for Mac OS X Lion. Even though the app is technically in beta, it has been very stable and has been a pleasure to use.

Unfortunately, my MacBook is the 2008 model that you decided wasn’t quite recent enough for Mac OS X Mountain Lion although I am certain it would run just fine based on the specs of the next model you did decide to support. What this means to me is that I will lose the ability to use iMessages on my MacBook on December 14th.

I do have to admit that I’m a little confused about this whole thing. Clearly, Messages runs on Mac OS X Lion. I have a working app to prove it. If this is a matter of revenues or some other technicality, I would gladly fork over a few bucks to buy Messages from the Mac App Store. Remember FaceTime? How about you do something similar to that approach. It would be great to continue to enjoy iMessages on my MacBook that still has a lot of useful life left.

Please let me know what you think when you have a chance.

Best regards,
Tim

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Last week, one of my Facebook friends asked if it made sense to share one Apple ID between he and his wife so they did not have to buy their apps twice on each of their iPhones. The short answer here is yes, but does it really make sense in a world where individuals personalize their devices?

As a family with more iOS devices than I would like to admit, we use the same Apple ID on all of our devices and in iTunes on all of our computers. This works for us now because my wife and I don’t mind using the same Apple ID, and our kids are too young to have accounts of their own. In less than a year, the oldest will want an account of her own, and I can’t really blame her. I would too.

So, how does Apple solve this issue with an insanely great solution? Well, here’s my plan.

It is time for Apple to implement the Apple Household. A Household will be comprised of one or more Apple IDs. All purchases made with any of the Apple IDs in the Household will roll up into one iTunes in the Cloud library. This will make purchases available to anyone in the Household.

So what are the benefits of having several Apple IDs rolling up into one Apple Household? The biggest advantage is that a family will be able to easily consolidate their purchases in the cloud and will be able to take advantage of iTunes in the Cloud and iTunes Match as a family while still maintaining individual accounts on iOS devices.

Of course, an Apple Household would also create a lot of opportunity for parents to monitor and control the purchases of their minor children. Apple already provides a way for parents to give an iTunes allowance to their kids. The Household could take this even further by using the concept of a head of household. The head of household, most likely a parent or guardian, would have the ability to easily set parental controls over all of the minor accounts in the Household via a simple iTunes-based control panel.

So, to summarize, the Apple Household provides the individualism that typical Apple users need, families get the consolidated iTunes library they want, and parents get the controls they require. Seems like everyone wins. Apple, let’s make this happen!

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Steve JobsSteve Jobs and Apple have had an enormous impact on my life and the lives of most of the people I know and love. Steve’s passing leaves a massive hole in the world of technology and in many of our lives. Many of us feel like we had a personal connection with him because he was just one of us: a user. He was always the one that just got it. He helped his designers and developers create products that he wanted to use himself, and he brought the rest of us along for the ride. His products “just worked.”

It was Apple (and by association, Steve Jobs) that turned me on to technology at a very early age. Does anyone remember programing an Apple IIe in elementary school to show images based on pixel coordinates? I sure do. I was amazed I could make a computer do exactly what I wanted it to do. Looking back now, I think it was that time that locked me in to being a technologist even though I have meandered through music and finance along the way.

I am personally thankful to Steve for providing the perfect example of how a technologist should approach their work. Each of his keynote addresses provided a master class of how to teach an audience about a new product and convince the audience that they needed that product at the same time. His keynote addresses have significantly influenced the way I approach my product demos and training classes, and I often go back and watch his addresses to get inspired before a big client meeting. I believe this influence has made my presentations more productive and entertaining for my clients.

Steve’s endless pursuit of perfection in his products has also influenced me in my work. Whenever I design a product, I feel like it should “just work.” Whether it is a massive enterprise system or the smallest of reports, I have always believed that the solutions should do what they are supposed to do in a logical, focused way. If the targeted audience for a solution cannot use it without a user manual, I have failed as a designer. Let’s be honest, no one ever wants to read a manual. So, if I create a banking app that a banker cannot instinctively use: FAIL. If I create a photography app that a photographer cannot instinctively use: FAIL. You get my point. This, I think, is the most important lesson Steve Jobs has taught me and many others in the technology industry. Can you imagine if we all created technology solutions that kind of worked and that were so complex that you needed a manual to use every feature? None of us would be having any fun or moving forward. For this lesson, I will be forever thankful.

Finally, I would like to thank Steve for choosing October 23, 2001 to introduce the iPod to the world. It was a beautiful sunny day in Chicago, and I cannot think of a better way to celebrate my birthday than to sit at the Michigan Avenue Apple Store to watch the announcement in person. The iPod and I will always share the same birthday, and that’s pretty cool!

Thanks Steve!

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Ever since WordPress 3.2 was released, I have been curious about how Post Formats work because the default theme supports them.  The theme I normally use with Probstisms does not support Post Formats so I have switched to the default theme for a while to give them a try.

It seems to me that the Status Port Format has potential to be used as a way to initiate both Twitter and Facebook status updates.  The Link and Image Post Formats also have potential. My only hesitation is that there does no seem to be a character count in the WordPress post editor so it would be a bit of a guessing game as far as making Twitter status updates look good.

Now, some of you may be asking why I would want to initiate things like status updates and links through my blog.  Well, my guess is that Twitter and Facebook will not be around forever. Maintaining so much content on a third-party’s server seems to be a short term solution. On the other hand, my blog uses a SQL database to store content.  SQL has been around for a long time and will be around long after Twitter and Facebook become old news.  If I can use the blog as an archive for this type of content, I will be able to have all of my posts, updates, and links in the same place.

We’ll see if I can make this work in a convenient way. Otherwise, it just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to go through the hassle. I will report back soon!

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It is with great pride and excitement that I share this video. Donnell worked many days and nights to get her web sites to be just right, and her hard work really paid off. She has an incredible eye for design (and photography, of course), and I am so ecstatic that her work is being recognized by other professionals. Her clients will love it too!

Showit Live 149 – Wild Animal Wednesday from Showit on Vimeo.

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We here at the Probst residence are extremely addicted to Angry Birds. I’m talking five completely out of control cases of Angry Birds fever! Well, it would be an understatement to say that all five of us are very excited to get our hands on Angry Birds Rio in March. Check out the trailer below. If the game is half as good as the trailer, we’re all in for a treat.