Όπως λέει και ο ίδιος (και θα συμφωνήσω,) έχω περάσει από όλα μάλλον τα στάδια χρήσης apps: από αυτό που κατεβάζεις το μισό AppStore και έχεις 9 home screens με apps, κλπ. Fast forward στο παρόν και το iPhone 4S, πιστεύω πως έχω ένα ωραίο curated list από apps συνδυασμένο με έναν απλό και efficient τρόπο οργάνωσης αυτών.

The Structure

Το οργανωτικό σύστημα έχει ως εξής. 2 screens, το πρώτο με τα most frequently used apps και το δεύτερο με όλα τα υπόλοιπα categorized στους respective φακέλους, εκτός από το Newsstand και τα Settings.

Υπάρχουν κάποιοι “άτυποι κανόνες,” όπως για παράδειγμα, το πρώτο screen θα πρέπει να έχει 12 apps (3 γραμμές, 4 apps each) χωρίς να υπολογίζονται τα 4 στο dock (το οποίο έχει και στο τέταρτο slot τον Twitter client.) Υπάρχει μία εξαίρεση, η οποία επιτρέπει να υπάρχουν παραπάνω από 12 apps — προσωρινά όμως μόνο. Δηλαδή, το app του TEDxAthens βρισκόταν για την ημέρα του event στο πρώτο home screen για εύκολο access. Μετά έγινε uninstalled (sorry, folks!) Παρομοίως το LeWeb app βρισκόταν και αυτό σε ένα extra slot, αλλά στο δεύτερο screen.

Το homescreen μου

Όπως φαίνεται και στο screenshot τα most-used apps μου είναι το Messages, Calendar, Photos, Camera, foursquare, Dropbox, Maps, Messenger, Wunderlist, Instagram, Music, Soundhound και το Path.

Το second screen μου

Πάμε λοιπόν στο ζουμί, το δεύτερο screen. Εδώ υπάρχουν όλα τα υπόλοιπα apps, μερικά εκ των οποίων τα χρησιμοποιώ αρκετά αλλά όχι εξίσου συχνά. Ταυτόχρονα όμως, είναι απαραίτητα. Εδώ υπάρχει πάλι ένας κανόνας. Αν γεμίσει ένα folder, π.χ. το News, με τα 12 slots του και θέλω να βάλω ένα νέο app, θα πρέπει να διαγράψω αντίστοιχα αυτό που δεν χρησιμοποιώ συχνά, γιατί δεν θέλω να γεμίζω με παρόμοια folders (2 folders έχουν μόνο τα Apple apps) — και κατ’ επέκταση, με παρόμοια apps. Αυτός ο κανόνας δεν παραβιάζεται!

The App List

Τώρα θα αναλύσω (σύντομα, υπόσχομαι!) όλα τα apps τα οποία έχω και χρησιμοποιώ. Σε όσα κρίνω πως χρειάζεται θα γράψω μια μικρή σχετική φράση.

Dock

1. Phone
2. Mail
3. Safari
4. Tweetbot: μέχρι πριν λίγες ώρες εκεί βρισκόταν το official Twitter app. Μετά το update, ενώ αρχικά μου άρεσε, είδα πως έλειπαν core features (όπως Send to Instapaper.) Ήταν το Tweetbot και σε προσφορά ($0.99), δεν γινόταν να πει κανείς όχι. [1]

Home screen

1. Messages
2. Calendar: το sync μέσω iCloud με iMac & iPad είναι όλα τα λεφτά. No need anymore για Google Calendar.
3. Photos
4. Camera: ποτέ δεν βρήκα κάποιο άλλο (Camera+, γκουχ) ώστε να το κάνει replace. Ούτε πρόκειται, ούτε χρειάζεται.
5. foursquare
6. Dropbox
7. Maps
8. Messenger: το ιδανικό messenger app για το Facebook inbox σου (είναι το official). Αρκεί να κλείσεις τα Push notifications των messages από το original Facebook app.
9. Wunderlist: από plain.txt to-do list user, το μόνο to-do app το οποίο βρίσκω εύκολο, γρήγορο, και αξιόλογο για χρήση.
10. Instagram
11. iPod/music
12. Soundhound: IMHO, καλύτερο από Shazam
13. Path: το καλύτερο νέο app για iPhone που έχω δει. Not YASN (Yet Another Social Network) όπως λέει στο bloggable.gr ο @dkalo.

Second screen

1. Δύο Apple folders με μέσα τα Contacts, Calculator, Compass, Voice Memos, Stocks, Clock, iTunes, AppStore, YouTube, Videos, Game Center, Reminders και Weather, Notes, iBooks, Find Friends, Find iPhone, iTC Mobile (iTunes Connect — για developers.)

News folder

1. CNN
2. ΣΚΑΪ
3. Feedly
4. Gazetta.gr
5. Naftemporiki
6. SuperLeague 11/12
7. PAOK 24
8. Instapaper
9. Reeder
10. The Verge
11. Flipboard
12. Zite

Utilities folder

1. ERSTE BANK Sparkasse netbanking
2. 1Password
3. Analytiks: minimalist και to the point Google Analytics
4. Skype WiFi
5. Glyphboard: web-app για διάφορα Unicode symbols (βελάκια, Apple icon, etc)
6. Adobe Reader
7. Google Translate
8. Apple Remote (για το Keynote)
9. Notifo: με δυο λόγια, send text/links/imgs/whatever από τον browser στο iPhone με Push notification
10. iMathematics: edu list με διάφορα mathematical functions, πληροφορίες, κλπ
11. Wikipanion
12. ATTScanner: ο πιο γρήγορος και εύχρηστος QR scanner που έχω βρει. Της AT&T.

Photography folder

1. 360 Panorama: της Occipital, καταπληκτικό
2. Photoshop Express
3. SocialCam: your Instagram for videos, hooked up with Facebook
4. Photosynth: όπως το 360, κάποιες φορές καλύτερα panoramas, χωρίς Twitter sharing
5. Batch: group photo-sharing app
6. iMovie: το καλύτερο mobile & on the fly video editing που έχω βρει
7. Camera Plus Pro: όχι το Camera+, εξαιρετικό feature για video shooting: μπορείς να κάνεις pause και να συνεχίσεις, στο ίδιο file. Thanks to @612gr
8. Vimeo
9. teleportd: πρόσφατο download, από Scoble, με δυο λόγια: location based, visual photo search. με μία λέξη: awesome.

Travel folder

1. ThessBook
2. TripWolf
3. Flight Card: πολύ ωραίο για frequent flyers, εξαιρετικό design και ευκολία στο να θυμάσαι πτήσεις, gates, departures & arrivals
4. AccuWeather
5. Strava: είχα γράψει για αυτό πρόσφατα
6. Mightybell
7. Aegean Airlines: που και που έχω δει αρνητικά σχόλια για αυτό, προσωπικά μου αρέσει και το βρίσκω χρήσιμο
8. Navigator: αντίστοιχο (όχι ίδιο) όπως της Aegean, αυτή τη φορά για όλο το Star Alliance
9. Shine: πιο όμορφο από το AccuWeather, ίσως όχι 100% αξιόπιστο πάντα. Παρόλαυτα, κάνει καλά την δουλειά του.
10. MyTaxi: το Taxibeat της Βιέννης και των Γερμανόφωνων πόλεων
11. Trazzler
12. Taxibeat

Music folder

1. SoundCloud
2. TuneIn Radio: για τις στιγμές που θες να ακούσεις OFFradio από το iPhone/iPad
3. Apple Remote: για το iTunes αυτή την φορά και όχι για το Keynote
4. IMDb
5. Overdub
6. Band of the Day
7. 8tracks: το official app του 8tracks.com
9. Audium
10. Bowtie
11. TuneTug: για όταν έχεις party
Update 12: OFFradio: το καλύτερο internetικό ραδιόφωνο τώρα και με το καλύτερο iOS app (released 14/12)

Social folder

1. Skype
2. LinkedIn
3. Tumblr
4. Facebook
5. WordPress
6. Amen
7. Gowalla
8. Viber
9. Yearly
10. 4sqwifi
11. Twitter official client
Update 12: Oink: downloaded just now, like it so far.

Games folder

1. Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2: για τους old school skaters
2. Canabalt: εθισμός
3. Chess Free

Ski folder

1. The North Face: Trailhead: app για κοντινά trails από την North Face
2. Snow Forecast: το επίσημο του snow-forecast.com (best snow forecasting website)

και τέλος, το Newsstand με τους New York Times και subscription στο WIRED και τα Settings.

Σχετικά με το πως διαλέγω να κατεβάσω ένα νέο app. Αυτό λοιπόν εξαρτάται από το εικονίδιο του app και το γενικότερο design που έχει, τον σκοπό-χρήση του, την τιμή του, αν το έχει κατεβάσει κάποιος φίλος ή γνωστός και έχει θετική άποψη, αν έχει γράψει για αυτό κάποιος tech blogger που διαβάζω και “ακούω” στις προτάσεις του ή κάποιο μεγάλο (tech) blog. Αν όλοι αυτοί οι παράγοντες ικανοποιούνται, τότε κατά πάσα πιθανότητα θα το κατεβάσω και θα μείνει για αρκετό καιρό σε κάποιο folder (ή και στο home screen αν είναι τόσο καλό,) μέχρι που να κυκλοφορήσει κάποιο άλλο που κάνει καλύτερα την δουλειά ή μου είναι άχρηστο ως προς την χρήση του.

Σύντομα θέλω να γράψω και για τα apps τα οποία χρησιμοποιώ στο iPad. Θα ήταν μια ακόμη πιο ενδιαφέρουσα λίστα, αν όχι εξίσου. Εσείς ποια apps χρησιμοποιείτε, πώς τα έχετε οργανώσει και τι συμβουλές ή recommendations έχετε να δώσετε;

—
[1] Ο φίλος @kpvl εδώ και μήνες μου έλεγε για το πόσο καλύτερο είναι το Tweetbot σε αντίθεση με τον official client. Αναγκάζομαι τώρα, με το καινούργιο version του δεύτερου να συμφωνήσω. Παρόλαυτα, Tweetbot vs previous Twitter official client: 1 – 1.

There are three key-aspects I’d like to discuss about Strava and how they make it a unique biking experience. I’m not going to exaggerate, Strava (as any other athletic-sport-etc-driven app) does not transform the sport itself, it (or they) add a whole new layer of data, enhancements, feedback — a new reality atop our reality, which is extremely valuable, insightful and new.

Design

Strava is all about simplicity. The only thing you can change from the app’s Settings is the unit of measure (klm/miles). There is nothing else to bother you. You can start biking right away. The whole process starts from the icon. (That’s what made me in the first place to download the app — it is well-known that with a great icon you can attract more downloads for your app.)

Strava Icon

Have a look now in Strava’s landing (first) and main screen. (click for full resolution)

Main Screen of Strava

There are no unnecessary UI elements that distract the user. The time, a basic concept which apps like this one are built around, underneath it with slightly smaller size the distance and the average speed and just below, a big blue “play” button that says “Come on, press me, let’s start!”

Simplicity is also to be found in the navigation bar of the app. Only three tabs: New Ride (main screen), Rides (your history) and Settings (where you can only edit Imperial or Metric system). I like this; a like this a lot.

Strava Stats screen

Strava Settings screen

As someone said “Good design is a design when the user doesn’t have to think.” Strava totally gets it, imho. Plus, if you know who said it, add it in the comments below, I’d appreciate it.

Community

Strava is not only an app that lives in your walled-garden of your iPhone. Surprisingly it communicates with a reach social network of bicyclists on which you can make teams, share rides and stats, see stats of yours and other possible public routes.

You can even create the must-ride routes in your city for tourists or other fellow bikers. Or virtually explore other cities’ routes from the comfort of your chair. Naturally, you can use it only as a personal training app — but do know: it’s a lot more than that, yet more simple than all the other competitors. (click for full resolution)

Strava Routes website

Strava runs on a freemium model. That means all the basic features are free but with a subscription fee you have more data, analytics, records, analysis of you personal work-out profile and all that geeky mathematical stuff.

From athletes for athletes — and everyone else

As a skier, ex-member of the Greek Junior-Development National team and with a 1st place in National Championships I can deeply understand how much better is something sports-related when it’s being developed by athletes. That is because athletes not only understand but know exactly what are their needs and make stuff explicitly atop those problems eventually solving them. A jacket (or any other thing, even an app) that’s being designed with the co-operation, feedback and insights of an athlete instead of a pure R&D team it will be ten times better at least.

Quoting them, “Strava grew out of our own needs as athletes. With busy lives requiring much solo training, we missed the sense of camaraderie and friendly competition that drove us to achieve our best through training with others. We envisioned Strava as the means to put our workouts and races into context. We call that social fitness.”

Summing up

In < 140 chars: If you bike, Strava is the app to download, for to enjoy and cherish your rides.

Disclosure: I have none whatsoever relationship with Strava, its founders or its developers.

In order to understand BoothChat, we need to go back a bit in time. To be precise, we need to go back right when Thanasis Polychronakis from Athens, Greece took the brave decision to leave Greece and head to mighty San Francisco’s Silicon Valley to pursue his (then) startup, geoWarp. But one night, in SF’s StartupWeekend, Thanasis had the idea of BoothChat and immediately started working on it. The idea was is, in fact, very simple. You write something, BoothChat snaps you a photo via your computer’s web camera (USB or built-in, doesn’t matter) and the photo gets published in a room.

To learn more about Thanasis story on migration (and how-to’s), working in the Valley and many more interesting things, read his blog 20minus.

Anyway, you must have thought by now “Oh, another Chatroulette…”. BoothChat though, has some significant differences.

• Firstly, it isn’t Chatroulette
• Secondly, it is about pictures & chat, not about video
• Thirdly, it is much more fun
• Fourthly, there are no weirdos (and probably, won’t be any—more on that in a little)

So, how exactly does Boothchat work?

You sign in with your Twitter or Facebook profile(*) and you are dropped automatically in a system-made chatroom (you can identify them of their /booth_10540 URLs). There, you start typing your chat message and you’re asked to give permission to BoothChat to take over your webcam and by the time you hit “Enter”, to take you a picture. It is really fun.

You can create your own rooms (key feature for ultimate fun) just by entering whatever you want after boothchat.com/ and chat and play with your friends there. All rooms are public though—the user created ones are accessible only if you know the full URL. There are also boothpics perma-links and cool viewing features. And of course, you can share with Facebook and Twitter your photos.

(*) note: that’s the reason there won’t be any weirdos, or at least there will be few of them.

BoothChat hasn’t yet received any kind of funding, but I think after they ship some cool new core features (can’t reveal, sorry!) it will be the next logical step.

Back in the first paragraph (second time-travel in this post) I wrote that BoothChat needs an iOS app. Hell yeah it needs one. Imagine the fun and the possibilities. iPad 2 comes already with Apple’s Photo Booth. My guess is that after shipping the new features, BoothChat needs to start developing the iOS app and seek for funding. Times are exciting.

What are you waiting? Join the fun!

Disclosure: Thanasis is a good friend of mine. This post was not “pushed” by him. It is just another post of a web-service/app/startup review here in apas.gr.

Fast forward to 2011 Linden Tibbets developed this awesome app called If this Then that. Ifttt (it’s the acronym) is based basically on the concept of event-driven programming. The whole concept of event-driven programming is that during the execution of a program, the programmer has some ideas about what types of events may happen.

For example “a user clicks a specific button” or “a new message arrives in your inbox”. Knowing what these events are, you can then attach a bit of code that runs the same way every time an event is encountered. It is very much like cause and effect, except as a programmer you’re free to be creative with what effects match up to each cause.

In plain English ifttt provides a simple logical structure, if this then that, along with two properties that fit into that structure, called triggers and actions. That being said ifttt enables anyone to be creative in their digital environments. Ifttt though, isn’t a programming language or app building tool, but rather a much simpler solution. Internet’s digital duct tape in a way, allowing you to connect any two services together.

Ifttt is in beta mode and just today I got my invitation. My first impressions are extremely positive. You can imagine, the first task I did create is a Delicious to Twitter process. As of now, whenever I submit a link into Delicious it will be automatically tweeted. Other tasks I created include “if current weather condition changes to rain, send me an email” or “when I share an item in Google Reader, then submit it to Delicious” which leads back to the first task, from Delicious to Twitter.

If you’re creative enough you can make clever “if this then that” tasks. Not only that, but there are literally dozens of web services and tools ifttt supports (which they are called channels in ifttt). I liked ifttt because of its easy-to-use interface and approach. You just log in and click create a task. Then, there’s something I’d call an automated wizard, which in about 5 steps helps you create your brand new tasks with beautifully simple menus, prompts and design.

The least I can say is that I am very impressed. Well, I am and I cannot help it. Ifttt is awesome and I suggest you registering for their beta invites. And just now, while writing the previous sentence, the very first ifttt email arrived notifying me that it rains in Thessaloniki. It’s quite fast, should I add. Take a look for yourself:

Again, I repeat. Ifttt is awesome and I suggest you registering for their invites. Now.

Random rant: the biggest part of this post was written in WordPress’ iPhone app while raining in Thessaloniki and watching Champions League’s semi-final between Manchester United and Schalke. It’s a long time since 2008, isn’t it? I was 16 and now I’m graduating from High School in a month!

Update: I liked a Vimeo video and boom—here’s the relevant tweet from ifttt:

Nikos Anagnostou ''Social Shopping'' http://bit.ly/m5xgqx

May 5, 2011 12:02 am via iftttReplyRetweetFavorite

@apas

Apostolos

“If you aren’t trying new things and failing, you aren’t learning.”

—Pedram Keyani, Facebook engineer

Pedram is right.

I first saw Pedram at MTV’s “The Diary of Facebook“. Apparently he is a very talented engineer, hacker extraordinaire, creator of Facebook’s infamous “Keg Presence” and has a radical approach regarding his work-desk. He doesn’t use a chair!

When I first saw this (for me at least, new) approach, I was in a way shocked. I was asking myself “is he crazy?” or “don’t his legs hurt a lot?” Well, the answer to both questions is no. No he is not crazy. Regarding legs, more in a second.

So today I thought why not try this. Experiment. Learn. Fail maybe, but learn whatsoever. I’m already working for 40 minutes at my standing desk and feels really cool. At first, I thought I’d dislike this new way but these 40 minutes prove me wrong. It feels a lot better as of working/writing/coding/killing time standing in the front of my Macbook while sitting on my chair.

Pedram’s arguments were that by standing and not sitting he was more active and busy all day long rather than getting too comfortable on a chair. My arguments are “just try it” and see if it fits you. I’m not sure if I can describe well the new feelings of the “standing desk” but I’m sure you’ll like it. For me it’s like freedom to stroll around brainstorming when you’re stuck with something (eg. writing this blog post), being more creative, having more luls, easier to interact with other people and fun.

Regarding legs as Gina Trapani wrote, the first two days will be a pain for you. That varies of course for each one. You might be athletic and you won’t hurt you a little or you might be not athletic and you’ll have to adjust yourself for a couple days or so. Really, it depends on your body type.

Most surprisingly though, medical studies have shown that the human body is not suitable for to work many hours while sitting. Excessive sitting might cause health problems. I guess though, all you need is some balance. When you see that your feet hurt take a 10-minute break to sit somewhere. Eat something, drink a tea—have a break basically.

Pros

• Freedom, enabling you to work better in many ways
• Focusing easier to your work
• Unique desktop environment
• It feels great
• Brainstorm awfully easier
• It’s better for your health!

Cons

• Feet-ache in the first couple days (maybe)
• New workflow for you to adapt into
• I don’t know something else

So, who else is using a standing desk?

As Gina informs us, mighty former Twitter developer and founder of BankSimple, Alex Payne, creator of Instapaper, Marco Arment, podcaster extraordinaire Dan Benjamin, novelist Philip Roth and even former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

My setup

This is how my computer-standing-desktop looks like now.

If you’re still skeptical about it, I’d say give it a 1-day try. I bet you’ll like it. Already using or want to use a standing desk? Share your experiences in the comments below.

Also, tips for standing desks from the Boing Boing blog.

[links on each app's name]

Sparrow

Sparrow is a new Gmail-only desktop e-mail client that caused a lot of hype because of it’s redesigned concept of how a mail clients should look like. Well, for some it’s almost the same with Tweetie or even iPad’s e-mail concept and design. Regardless of what you think, Sparrow is still in Beta 6 and coming up strong in the future. The short description in Sparrow’s website sums it up quite well: “Sparrow is a minimalist mail application for Mac. It was designed to keep things simple and efficient. No fancy stuff here… just your mail and nothing else.”

1Password

1Password is your Apple’s Keychain Access but ten times (let’s be honest; a thousand times) better than Apple’s proposed solution of password management. It has actually all what one might want from a password manager. First of all it’s the stunning interface. Not only that, but a significant role plays also it’s simplicity. Too much simplicity for a password management without complicating usability. Top of the top. I’ve never used a password manager before and I wouldn’t ever, but this very app proved me wrong. One of my favorites. Hat-tip: it also comes for iPhone/iPod, iPad and Windows—yes, Windows!

Sweet FM

Probably, “yet-another-LastFM-scrobbler” but I think it is the best yet-another scrobbler. A very compact, well-designed, attractive and easy to use LastFM client that rips-off the competitors. It is essential for LastFM-ers who scrobble only the tracks they listen (me!) and don’t use the client for to listen a radio station, although it can be used as a radio client extremely good too. Hat-tip: if you have a Flattr account, flattr them.

(now compare it to this.)

Conclusion

Personally, I liked these apps a lot and use them in an everyday basis (except, Sparrow because I don’t use my Gmail anymore—I have Google Apps setuped for apas.gr, that is I use the web version). Mac programmers and designers continue to wow me with their mad skills. Don’t forget to leave a comment below if you happen to know any other cool apps like these.

It’s probably the best Wikipedia extension/shortcut out there. Not only in Chrome, I might add.

If you’re surfing the Chrome way, give it a shot from the Google Chrome Extensions repo.

So, this is the new design.

Some quick facts

They’ll be rolling out the fresh features to the entire Flickr audience in the coming weeks but there’s also a beta opt-in (just visit a photo page and follow the 1-click-instructions atop). Photos will now be displayed with a larger 640 pixel wide size — plus the photo page will be a bit wider.

The photo owner, dates taken, camera, and location (with a great Yahoo! Maps implementation) of the photo are all within easy reach to the top-right of the image. They’ve reorganized all of the helpful features that we already know into a handy Actions menu.

There’s also a brand new light box view to spotlight your photos (no need now for 3rd party sites). Favorites integration into the photo’s comments. Finally, improved navigation controls and performance on the photo page (yes, it is faster).

And some thoughts

I’d prefer the old-school buttons above the photo and not the new reorganized shiny bling bling thingie. These buttons were something like a trademark for Flickr, don’t you think? I don’t like the idea that all actions will be packed under a drop-down menu with more submenus and clicks. The photo page has become wider — so, why change the famous buttons?

The new “sidebar-like” structure with the photo owner, dates taken, camera, and location of the photo, all within reach to the right of the image is great. I mean, I like it a lot. There seems to be a bug, though. My photos were taken using an iPhone 3GS and not 3G.

The light box vew is ultra fast. Like, ultra fast multiplied by fast. The next/previous works absolutely great and the one-click enable/disable is quite of a cool concept.

Obviously, last but not least, the new width of the photos is very handy. More detail, more pixel love combined with Flickr photo quality equals more fun using the website.

Summing up

• Things I did like: new sidebar structure & layout, lightbox feature, larger photo width
• Things I didn’t like: new “Actions” menu, 3G/3GS bug, favorites-in-comments appearance

Did you opt-in for the beta? Do you like the new Flickr redesign or care to share some thoughts? Feel free to comment.

Update: Also the home page is redesigned (click for original size)

I updated through iTunes only after backing up my contacts and syncing them with Google. Now, I don’t think I’ll sync again with Google, because Gmail’s contacts are now mixed with my phone contacts. That’s silly. Really, silly. The positive is that now, I have backups from both Gmail and phone contacts.

The download of the new OS was fast enough and I didn’t have to wait that much. This is good. The installation took a little more than (I) expected, but as soon as everything’s okay I don’t mind it.

First feel

The first feel was like “superfast”. Give me speed. Yes, Apple give us more speed. When you swipe trough springboard & the home screens you feel like it’s a brand new phone. It feels uber fast. There’s also this new homescreen and lockscreen background that adds to this feeling.

First changes

First of all, Apple changed the icon graphics. Many of the icons have received very subtle tweaks that suggest Apple has done a complete re-drawing of the icon set, potentially for higher-resolution displays. The changes have in many cases added sharper lines to prior designs, such as the gears of the Settings icon and the rays of the Weather icon’s sun, but have also in some cases increased the color or contrast of small details in the icons.

Also, there’s this new dock that resembles the one found on the iPad, complete with icon reflections.

Multitasking

Probably iOS 4′s most awaited feature. I have to say that it’s awesome. With a double-tap of the home button the dock becomes a dock for already-running apps — whether you’re into another app or just swiping through your homescreens. There’s also this new fast app switching feature. It’s something like that: the “state” of the app stays in RAM but the app is technically suspended. That way it loads up faster than having to execute the app again from NAND Flash and loading to RAM and reading a saved state, also from NAND

Folders

Yeah, Folders! Everyone was so super excited about this but me. Anyway, it’s pretty cool I guess. But, personally, I don’t think I’ll use it. Just tap onto an app, hold so they start bouncing and then drop the app onto another app. iOS instantly combines them into this folder and names it automatically with the category of the apps. Could become handy, but not for me.

The iPod

iPod has also changed; for the better. You can now add/edit/delete playlists right from your phone. The contents of albums are now displayed by the iPod application with extra duration, release date, and artist information, plus a shuffle button and album art.

Camera

We’ve got digital zoom dudes & girls! This is big news! You can pinch or tap-and-hold to activate the digital zoom feature, and a slider appears on screen to let you set the zoom level. There’s also tap-to-focus ability to video recording. This is whoop whoop! (click on the screenshot to see it’s real size — 768 x 1024, that’s big and I like it!)

Other cool stuff

There’s been added Greek Voice control. That’s cool and I like it (though, haven’t used Voice control since the first day I got the iPhone). Also Location Services have been expanded to turn off or on specific applications’ access to GPS data. Additionally, Notes now supports wireless syncing with multiple accounts. Syncing appears to be supported for any IMAP-based Mail account, rather than being a MobileMe-specific feature. That’s also cool. There are also new features in the Photo.app. There is the Places tab, which show geo-tagged where you snapped the photos. People say that there’s also a Faces tab & a rotate-photo option, but it seems that I don’t have them.

Verdict

Well, iOS 4 rocks big time. It feels like a new iPhone. It’s not just another update. It’s a whole new concept of the iPhone. If I were you, I’d stop by now reading this post and start updating. Despite I was with a jailbrake (only because of the SBSettings app — a cool home screen addon, like a dashboard), I updated and I do not regret it. You should do.

Update. Now.

There are three core differences (except the price) that make me say, yet again, “Air rocks big time.”

Reason 1: The Screen

Bigger. Brighter. Clearer. Better. That is, the Air’s screen. It may be only 13.3″ comparing to the 10″ of my netbook, but may I say you that this is a BIG difference. It’s like using a 24″ iMac or something like that. The feel after the transition between Air and netbook or vice versa is remarkable. It’s not a Retina display, I know, but it’s the feel that relaxes your eyes and your focus. More workspace. More happiness.

Reason 2: CPU and the such

2.13Ghz of pure Intel Core 2 Duo power. Versus the Intel Atom N270 1.60Ghz. I guess, Air wins here too. Mind the graphics too. The Air uses a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M whilst on the other hand, the Turbo-X notebook is making cool things with a Intel GMA 950 GPU. Nevertheless, the RAM plays a significant role too; 2Gb of RAM instead of 1Gb is also a good sign. Summing up, hardware on the Air rocks big time, for it’s size capabilities.

Reason 3: Software

I’m not gonna talk about iLife. We all know it’s a great software suite/package. I’m gonna talk about how smoothly every single program runs in Mac OS X. No crashes. No lags. No nothing. Even the OS is pretty much like a “rockstar” itself. Your work-flow is never stopping. Plus that you can find many great apps such as Coda, Tweetie, Things, Grapher and many, many more. Basically, it’s the UX (User Experience) that’s a solid “win” for everyone.

Concluding, I have to admit that once you go Mac you never come back. It’s a whole different realm of computers and technology. Of concept and ideas. Of design and user experience. Despite that Steve may becoming sometimes an ass, you can’t deny that Apple, nowadays, makes the best machines out there. Call it iMac, Macbook, iPhone, iPad, iWhatever; it’s a fact. And I highly recommend you becoming a switcher soon.

Ξεχάστε τα βαριά addons & extensions του Firefox και Opera. Η νέα εποχή είναι εδώ με τον Google Chrome και τα extensions του. Μικρά lightweight scripts που κάνουν ό,τι λένε και κάθονται υπομονετικά δίπλα από την address bar έτσι ώστε να μην τρώνε τσάμπα pixel και page content όπως οι γνωστές παλιές toolbars χωρίς περιττά pop-ups και extra cpu usage λόγω κακογραμμένου κώδικα. Με dead simple εγκατάσταση και χρήση — μόνο με ένα κλικ. Ήρθε η ώρα να δείτε τα 8 πιο χρήσιμα από αυτά που θα αλλάξουν το browsing feel.

Google Mail Checker

Baked by Google, δεν θα μπορούσε να λήψει φυσικά. Το original extension από την Google για το Gmail. Απλό και γρήγορο. Period.

Send from Google

Άλλο ένα extension από την μαμά Google που μετατρέπει κάθε <mailto:> link έτοιμο για χρήση στο mail client που άλλαξε το webmail για πάντα, Gmail ή αλλιώς makes Gmail your default email application.

Fittr Flickr

Αλλάζει το Flickr προς το καλύτερο. Με επιλογές για να δεις στα διάφορα sizes κάθε φωτογραφία, EXIF και άλλα metadata με ένα κλικ πάνω στην φωτογραφία.

Bit.ly shortener for Google Chrome

Δεν θα μπορούσε να λήψει φυσικά ο πιο διάσημος url shortener out there. Με ένα login μέσα από την drop-down sidebar που προσφέρει realtime stats, url creation και άλλα πολλά μαζί με Twitter integration είναι η καλύτερη επιλογή.

Chrome Notepad

Από τον δικό μας, Γιώργο Παπαδάκη. Πολύ χρήσιμο για γρήγορες σημειώσεις on-the-fly, temp save ενός link, κάποιου κώδικα or whatever. Σημασία έχει ότι είναι εξαιρετικά καλό — την χρήση την αποφασίζει ο καθένας μόνος.

User ID

Το δεύτερο side project του Γιώργου Παπαδάκη. Με λίγο Twitter API, AJAX και on hover love, λείπει μόνο το face recognition για να μας δίνει την καλύτερη instant user information για κάθε χρήστη του Twitter.

Picnik

Handy tool για website screenhots και simple on-site editing.

Pendule

Extra handy tool για web developers / designers. Με 2 κλικ διαθέσιμη κάθε τεχνική πληροφορία για την κάθε σελίδα και όχι μόνο.

Tip: Chrome Bookmarks sync

Όσοι χρησιμοποιείτε συχνά διαφορετικούς υπολογιστές θα έχετε παρατηρήσει ότι σχεδόν πάντα θα λείπουν τα αγαπημένα σας bookmarks. Την λύση, πέρα από το να τα αποθηκεύετε στο Delicious ή να τριγυρνάτε με ένα bookmarks.html αρχείο σε ένα flashάκι, ήρθε να δώσει η Google με το Bookmarks Sync. Απλά με ένα κλικ στο “γαλλικό κλειδί” tab > Bookmarks sync σε συνεργασία με το Gmail account, τα Google Docs και αυτοματοποιημένο import/export σε κάθε υπολογιστή με το login, ήρθε το τέλος σε αυτό το πρόβλημα.

Ποιά είναι τα δικά σας αγαπημένα Chrome extensions? Μήπως ξέρετε για κάποιο catchy trick; Feel free to comment below.

Είναι πολλές οι υπηρεσίες που μαζεύουν όλα τα profile σου στο Internet και υπόσχονται να φτιάξουν ένα μικρό προσωπικό mashup της ιντερνετικής σου δραστηρίοτητας. Άλλες το κάνουν με καλό τρόπο — άλλες πάλι είναι πολύ κατώτερες των προσδοκιών, των απαιτήσεών σου, πως φαντάστηκες το τελικό αποτέλεσμα κλπ. Την θέση όμως όλων αυτών ήρθε να πάρει τελικά το Flavors.me.

Με ένα dead simple registration process και 15 υποστηριζόμενες υπηρεσίες ήρθε η ώρα να μαζέψεις και εσύ το δικό σου online presence σε ένα μέρος. Minimalism στα καλύτερα του, αλλά και high customization που δεν πάει πίσω είναι από τα ατού το Flavors.me.

Μετά το πολύ απλό registration, του ονόματος & μιας one-line-bio, έρχεται η σειρά για την προσθήκη των διάφορων profiles. Με Twitter, Flickr, Posterous, LinkedIn, Foursquare, RSS feeds να είναι οι βασικότερες υπηρεσίες out there και authorization via OAuth ή Facebook connect — οι άλλες είναι απλά too much information και σε λιγότερο από 10 λεπτά έχεις δημιουργήσει ένα stylish, slick online presence mashup. Φαντάσου το σαν ένα portfolio, αλλά χωρίς να είσαι κάποιος καλλιτέχνης, φωτογράφος ή web designer.

Για να καταλάβεις περίπου περί τείνος πρόκειται μπορείτε να δεις το profile που έφτιαξα μέσα σε λίγα λεπτά.

Υπάρχει, φυσικά ανταγωνισμός — μέχρι και τα Google Profiles, αλλά το Flavors.me φαίνεται να υπερσχύει κατά πολύ για την ευχρηστία και απλότητα του αλλά και για το τελικό αποτέλεσμα που προσφέρει.

Η βασική έκδοση είναι δωρεάν, υπάρχει όμως και η δυνατότητα για Premium account (που είναι και το bussiness plan του Flavors), το οποίο κοστίζει 20$/year και προσφέρει μέσα στα άλλα custom domain, (realtime) stats και μια contact form. Είναι βασισμένο σε Flash από την HiiDef ή όπως το λένε αυτοί καλύτερα, a web product incubator started in 2008 by a team from Vimeo, Meetup, Pronto, IAC / InterActiveCorp and Digitalmash.