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Now with 3.0 goodness

App Store Expense Monitor

Evan alerted me to this nifty app earlier which I should have noticed even earlier since Macworld US wrote about it a couple of weeks ago. It's a menu item called App Store Expense Monitor. What it does is it gives you a list of all the iPhone apps you've ever purchased based on the iTunes Media folder in your computer and it also tells you how much you've spent.

If you have purchased apps using different iTunes Store accounts, it will display them separately although it can only display in one currency. It uses the currency setting inside the System Preferences under Language & Text in Mac OS X Snow Leopard or under International in Leopard. This means if you use accounts with multiple countries that use different currency symbols, it will only show your primary currency.

It's handy because it lets you keep track of what you've bought and how much you've spent. You can also export the list into one text file that can be imported into a spreadsheet.

It's not without several issues though:

1. It looks up current app prices on the App Store to determine how much you've spent. 
It doesn't help if you got the apps at different prices or even for free during promo periods. If you did, you'll have to manually enter the actual price you paid. If you've spent money by purchasing for items directly from inside an application, this app won't know anything about it.

2. It's a menu item app
It could have been a proper application that sits on the Dock but the developer decided to make it a menu item. I can see why it's useful up there but it should have been an option like with Skitch. There is precious little real estate on the menu bar when you're not using a 2000 pixel wide monitor.

3. The app stays on top
Even dialog boxes would step back when you switch to a different app. This thing stays on top even when it's not the active window, obscuring whatever windows you have open underneath.

4. No secondary click option
It would have been more useful had it had a contextual menu when you control+click on each of the app listed

Regardless of those shortcomings, this app is undoubtedly useful. Arguably, buying apps using iTunes Gift Cards would be a better way to control your spending if that option available in your country. At the moment, there is no iTunes Cards for the App Stores in South East Asia.

Filed under  //   app store   apple   apps   budget   iphone   mac os x   money  
Posted October 21, 2009
// 1 Comment

Telkomsel's current tethering option with iPhone 3G

There was no public announcement but Telkomsel sent out a text message to its iPhone 3G customers several weeks ago telling them that the tethering option has changed. Tethering is a way to use your phone as a modem by connecting it to your computer either wirelessly or via a cable.

Yes, the company that couldn't decide how to package the iPhone 3G since it launched the phone back in March this year changed its policy yet again and apparently many new customers aren't aware of it. Then again not many are aware of the tethering option in the first place.

The new policy came with the latest promo package which began sometime before Ramadhan to coincide with the price drop on the 16GB model from 9.5 million to 7.5 million. With the new package, tethering is still optional via sms to 1377 but if you had to pay Rp 87,500 per month before, which gives you an additional 1GB quota for tethering, this offer is no longer available.

Tethering is now available for free and data usage is taken from the 500MB quota you get as the standard package, which if you notice, is the only package available now. There seems to be no more Turbo Plus or Turbo Premium.

Another catch is that the tethering menu in the Settings app may disappear if you upgrade to OS 3.1 or 3.1.2 and decide to use another operator. Your iPhone 3G is unlocked when you restore it to OS 3.0 so you're free to use it with SIM cards from other GSM operators. What they didn't tell you though, is that the tethering menu in Settings app disappears if you use a non-T-sel SIM card. I currently have no information on how to get it back. I'll update this entry once I do.

Filed under  //   apple   internet   iphone   telkomsel   tethering  
Posted October 21, 2009
// 1 Comment

Tweetie 2.0 coming very soon

The excellent Tweetie apps on both iPhone and Mac will have version 2.0 coming real soon. Loren Brichter, the developer, will submit the app to Ap Store this week and the Mac version will follow soon after.

It looks like a heck of a lot of work was put into making this one as it now looks like a completely brand new app (well, Brichter did say it's a new app). There is an insane amount of changes and new implementations in the iPhone version of Tweetie 2.0, which will be available for $2.99, and unfortunately owners of Tweetie 1.x will have to buy it again but it's going to be worth it.

Tweetie 2.0 for iPhone will require OS 3.0 and best used on iPhone 3GS but older iPhones are good for it too, they just won't be able to take advantage of some of its more advanced features.

Filed under  //   apple   apps   developer   iphone   mac   mac os x   tweetie   twitter  
Posted September 28, 2009
// 0 Comments

Buzz Anderson on quality vs first to market

"Shipping quality is a longer, tougher road than just shipping whatever to be first to market, and its benefits tend to be realized more slowly, but if you want users to love your software as a brand, and not merely use it as a commodity, it’s the only way"

Filed under  //   android   apple   design   google   iphone   software  
Posted August 11, 2009
// 0 Comments

Blackberry vs iPhone 3.0

Infoworld pits the new iPhone 3.0 with Blackberry 9000

"I was shocked to discover how bad an e-mail client the BlackBerry is compared to the iPhone. And the BlackBerry is terrible at the rest of what the iPhone excels at: being a phone, a Web browser, an applications platform, and a media presenter. With its Windows 3-like UI, tiny screen, patched-together information structure, and two-handed operation, the BlackBerry is a Pinto in an era of Priuses."

via Macworld

Filed under  //   3.0   blackberry   bold   iphone   smartphone   telephone  
Posted July 5, 2009
// 5 Comments

Why Palm Pre is not on Verizon

http://www.marco.org/135948254

 Interesting view from Marco Arment who thinks Apple may have done a deal with Verizon to keep Palm away from the US' largest CDMA network and keep them from fully competing with the iPhone.

 A CDMA iPhone may be the carrot that Apple is dangling in front of Verizon's face for 2010, not another device, says he.

 Didn't Apple hire CDMA engineers a while back?

 Sent from my iPhone

Filed under  //   apple   iPhone   palm pre   telecommunications   verizon  
Posted July 5, 2009
// 1 Comment

New Glyphboard arrangement


Looks like Neven Mrgan updated Glyphboard, the character palette offline web app for iPhone OS. As you can see from the pics, the degree symbol º has been replaced by the en-dash as per this blog entry and the circle with a dot in it on the bottom left corner is also gone, replaced by the envelope icon. Unfortunately he seemed to have forgotten to refine the yin yang symbol to fit in the corner so for now it doesn't look as nice.


Filed under  //   app   apple   iphone  
Posted July 2, 2009
// 0 Comments

MacBooks and batteries

You know what I love about Apple, they work on getting morons to stop abusing their Macs.
 
In Leopard, they stopped you from being able to change the name of your home folder. In the MacBook Air and new MacBook Pros, as well as all iPods and iPhones, you can't even remove the batteries without taking the gadget apart and they're not user replaceable.
 
What is this saying to you? It's saying Apple doesn't want you to use their notebooks without the battery, so use the battery at ALL TIMES.
 
AT. ALL. TIMES. unless you're changing the battery in which case the power is cut anyway.
 
Do you know what "at all times mean"? No? Look it up in the Dictionary app. It's in your Mac. You don't know there's a Dictionary app in your Mac? You're using Mac OS 9? Get away from my face.

Filed under  //   apple   battery   iphone   ipod   macbook  
Posted June 23, 2009
// 2 Comments

Over One Million iPhone 3GS served




From the release:

Apple® today announced that it has sold over one million iPhone™ 3GS models through Sunday, June 21, the third day after its launch. In addition, six million customers have downloaded the new iPhone 3.0 software in the first five days since its release.

“Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With over 50,000 applications available from Apple’s revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.”

 

This would be the first time this year that Apple sends out a press release quoting Steve Jobs.

More than 1 million iPhones in 3 days is similar to last year but last year they had 21 countries on launch day while this year they only had eight (USA, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK). This makes it even more impressive after reading reports of shorter lines and shorter wait times people endured this year. Some analysts projected much lower sales figures of 500 thousand to 750 thousand. Wall Street would love this.

 

However Apple and AT&T still had activation issues prompting Apple to send out $30 iTunes Gift Certificates to those who purchased a new iPhone this past weekend and had issues with activating their phones.

 

One last thing, Apple had been calling the new iPhone the iPhone 3G S prior to this release and they still do on the product pages. For whatever reason, their PR department had decided to call it the iPhone 3GS, without the space, and they even went so far as to amending previous releases to say 3GS instead of 3G S. Journalists over on Twitter are having fun and throwing mock fits with this turnaround.

Filed under  //   apple   iphone   iphone 3gs  
Posted June 23, 2009
// 0 Comments

Free iPhone apps may be on the way out


The economics of In-App Purchase
Tumblr lead developer Marco Arment on the new App Store policies on in-app purchases within 3.0.

"Lite" apps may become $0.99 apps that get additional features over time, and more expensive apps may very well get a drop in price and features to take advantage of this new App Store policy.

I can see how this would lead to nightmares as far as consumer satisfaction and expectations are concerned.

Filed under  //   app store   apps   free   iphone  
Posted June 21, 2009
// 0 Comments