via 9 to 5 Mac

• Back from Hawaii! Suddenly Germany feels cloudier than ever. #
• Why am I sweating more in Germany than in Hawaii? #
• "Sun Certified Developer for the Java
  2 Platform" — That's me. #
• Copy a control element designed for touch and bring it to the desktop: "Be what's next" right? http://isne.at/1h #

• Downloading some software, upgrading a device. #iOS4 #

Another great overview just came live 10 minutes ago on Ars technica. Read it while you wait for your iOS 4 download to finish.

• Doing the obvious thing and following WWDC keynote live blogs: http://next.cinnamonthoughts.org/ #
• Farmville is coming to iPhone. I hope there will be some real announcements… #WWDC #
• iPhone 4 display: 4 times the pixels, will render hi-res text and GUI controls automatically even in "old" apps. Nice. #
• iPhone 4: Gyroscope, 802.11n, better battery, A4 (iPad CPU). These make up for the Farmville announcement on stage. #
• "This product desires that stick out of lens uses electively to only long some digital camera than Dicapac hard packing length." — Okay… #

The Google Reader client Reeder is now available as an iPad version.

I’ve been using the beta versions for two weeks and it only crashed once while loading a web page with lots of pictures (a post on http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/) which was no surprise as the iPad just couldn’t handle the amount of data (out of memory). Otherwise it works flawlessly, faster the NetNewsWire on my Mac and is pure fun to use.

Go to the app store and download Reeder for iPad now if you use both, an iPad and Google Reader. It’s a must have!

• Hey TNT, I'm home—where are you? #
• I've got iPad. Yay! #
• Syncing… Damn you entertaining content! #
• My iPhone suddenly feels tiny, light and cheap. Thanks for confusing my senses, iPad. #
• iPad is just great. Enjoying @reederapp (fantastic iPad beta), @instapaper, @twitterrific, iBooks & Mirror's Edge. #
• Amazon.de charges for packaging below 20€. They didn't for my order of 19,90€. Thanks @amazon! #
• You can select several photos on the iPad by touching & holding one until the selection mark appears, then move your finger to select more. #
• Ollie (@twitterrific) — connecting blue and grey iPad icons since 2010. http://embr.it/BTc #
• Good news for iPad owning Google Reader users: "Just submitted Reeder for iPad (via @reederapp)" #
• I'll collect links to live coverage of Monday's keynote on http://next.cinnamonthoughts.org. The web app links to mobile sites from iPhone. #
• Wanna play a game of @CarcassonneApp? Invite me or tell me your mail address via DM. #
• This is just wrong: "Just got notified that the review process will require additional time..". /via @reederapp #
• 28°C and the train will be 30 minutes late. My favorite thing on a Sunday! #

• Twitter for iPhone (Tweetie 3) is out. The retweet button replaced the paperclip (URL actions). Expect lots of accidental retweets by me. #
• Good thing Twitter 3.0 asks before retweeting. Just prevented my first accidental retweet.
  It looks mostly like Tweetie 2.0 which is good! #
• Removing the username and NOT focusing the password field after a failed login attempt is bad design. #
• The fantastic Google Reader client @reederapp is coming to iPad: http://isne.at/reederipad #
• Bought the Missing iPhone Dev Manual by @chockenberry for $10 as PDF+ePub. http://isne.at/idevbook — IT COMES WITH http://isne.at/FLESHYPALM #
• Windows: cleaned. Hours spent: 4. Light intensity in rooms: at least one order of magnitude more. Victory beer: tasty. #
• My lovely wife made me a Tequila Sunrise. Thanks @Mrs_GTM! #

My favorite newsreader Reeder will soon be available on iPad.

Twitter followers of @reederapp got a sneak peek of the iPad version of this minimalistic and beautiful, yet powerful news reader that syncs with Google’s feed aggregation service.

I especially like the pinch to open gesture for feed folders and sure hope there won’t be any problems during the submission process to the app store. Apple rejected an iPad app for using this gesture before.

I’m really excited to load Reeder onto my iPad in the near future which should arrive after another (long) week of waiting — my iPad that is.

In the meantime check out Reeder’s website and Reeder for iPhone on the app store.
Also take a look at even more gorgeous screenshots of the current beta version posted to Twitter: tweet 1, tweet 2, tweet 3, tweet 4.

• Just pre-ordered 64GB flash memory in a nice aluminum and glass package. #
• Ukulele cover of MGMT's "Kids" http://isne.at/ukekids /via @danfrakes #
• "The cake is a lie!" — Portal is free on Steam for Mac. #
• Wow, Portal is short — and great! After three hours you're rewarded with a funny song during the credits… and maybe cake. #
• Finally bought Transmit 4 (http://panic.com/transmit/) by @panic. The trial got me hooked. Goodbye substandard file transfers! #
• Taxes: done! 36 pages of pure fun. #

Note that this is not a paid post, I’m just happy I’ve finally found the FTP client I was looking for.

• "A simple «Hello World» app created in Flash and compiled to work on the iPhone would take up 8 MB" (Wired, http://isne.at/8mbflash) #
• NASA TV: "the mission which will be commanded by canned ham…"
  Clearly the video stream I'm watching isn't of great quality. #
• Received my first iPad case in the mail today. Still four days until I can pre-order an iPad. This is not ideal. #

Pictures (and an article in Russian) of a huge ground effect plane. The ground effect and similar planes on Google image search.

(via Boing Boing)

• Tocotronic! http://twitpic.com/1flqmj #
• At fantastic set of photos picturing spacecrafts, astronauts and Earth: http://isne.at/spacepix (boston.com) #
• Collection of well designed iPad apps — or as they say it: http://ipadappsthatdontsuck.com/ #
• Gave up trying to convert http://isne.at/m2 to ePub. Isn't there one decent ePub converter? Will read in @instapaper instead. Always works! #

It was nice and quite in Iceland back in 2007. Now — in addition to water spewing geysers (picture) — the volcano Eyjafjallajökull is shooting large amounts of ash, smoke and steam into the atmosphere forcing many European airports to cancel flights. It first erupted in March and boston.com has several stunning photos of the event last month as well of today’s activity.

View the pictures
More photos of ash, lava and lightning.

• Mobile app dev "rap battle": web apps vs. native — http://isne.at/1a #
• Received 11 @moviepeg iPhone stands today. Guess which one is my wife's! http://embr.it/moviepegs #

• GUI You can now set a wallpaper for the homescreen. This is the least interesting news to me and somewhat expected as the iPad already offers this. The iPhone dock will look like the iPod touch glass dock.
• App folders Apps can be put into folders. Apple’s love to detail manifests itself in the fact that new folders are named after the App Store category the folder’s apps are in.
• Mail.app Several new features including an unified inbox and threads.
• Calendar access via API Great feature if used right by productivity apps.
• MobileMe Notes syncing Finally MobileMe notes syncing will be included. No longer only available through iTunes.
• Bluetooth keyboard iPhone becomes iPad nano.
• iBooks Uhm… yeah. Saw that one coming. Synchronizes bookmarks and reading position between iBooks small and iBooks medium. When will we see iBooks large for Mac? Winnie the Pooh will also be free on iPhone iBooks.
• Game Center Apple’s take on in-game social networks like OpenFeint, Plus+, etc. Bad for those companies/services but good for the user as it is built-in and many games will support it which means you’ll actually find your real life friends online. Maybe.

Multitasking

For many (3rd party) multitasking will be the most important addition to the iPhone OS platform. I think multitasking is not essential on mobile devices like the iPhone (the iPad is another story), especially multitasking which requires the user to manage processes and kill applications running in the background and sucking the battery empty. Apple’s approach promises the flexibility of multitasking while sparing the user the ugly face of it. Developers can access these multitasking features through new APIs:

• Limited multitasking This is a good thing as no app can bring the whole device down (in theory). Developers have different APIs to benefit from multitasking.
• Fast switching Press the home button and the whole view slides up, revealing a row of icons which is flickable to select the app you want to switch to.
• Task completion Certain tasks are allowed to finish in the background (e.g. picture upload).
• Background sound Apps can play music in the background and use the lock screen iPod controls. (Lock iPhone and double-press the home button.) Skype can also run in the background just like iPhone’s phone app.
• Background location Allows an app to access your location while not the front-most app. Great for running/hiking and navigation apps.
• Push notifications While lacking a cosmetic overhaul (admit it, those blue popups are ugly) the new local notifications are part of the best new features. Not requiring a server, apps can notify the user directly from the device. Task managers can now remind you of deadlines, etc. without using an internet connection.

iAd

Steven Jobs: mobile advertising “really sucks”. iAd is interactive HTML5-only ads, built-in. A tab on an ad doesn’t leave the app and allows the user to return to where (s)he were.

A slap in Google’s and Adobe’s faces.

Google, the ad-company, will have a hard time competing against a system-wide solution should the revenue for developers be the same or better. The developer will receive 60% of the revenues which Jobs says is industry standard. I think it will be more important how the ads perform. I can live with 10% revenue if I make more money per month because the displayed ads get more clicks (or taps). If I tap on an ad and the app quits and opens Safari I’ve done this for the first and last time. Should I see a nice looking, HTML5 ad which doesn’t quit the app and which is — dare I say it — entertaining because it is interactive and even informative (Apple demonstrated some ads with games and maps), I will certainly tap on interesting ads again.

In the end, it all comes down to the revenue developers get by including Apple’s iAds and not Google’s. We’ll have to see who wins.

Availability

Another great thing about the iPhone OS 4.0 upgrade will be its availability on older generation devices (iPhone 3G and 2nd generation iPod touch). The users of those devices will miss some features (multitasking, etc.) but they get the update. It’s not a given that you get software updates for your phone or music player two years after you bought it. The original iPod touch and iPhone are not strong enough to run the update, though. I was surprised they got the OS 3.0 treatment in the first place.

iPhone and iPod touch will get the update this summer, iPad owners will have to wait till fall. (I’m already practicing waiting: still two weeks until the iPad arrives in Germany.)

The Future

I have high hopes for iPhone OS 4.0 with the slew of new features and especially Apple’s implementation of multitasking. During the Q&A after the keynote Jobs said “If a user has to use a task manager to manage [multitasking], [the device maker] blew it. Users shouldn’t have to think about that stuff.” (source) This way of thinking is a great starting point to do something as delicate as a good implementation of multitasking right.

Asked about new iPad features, a device that shipped five days ago, Steve replied “We just shipped it on Saturday, and we rested on Sunday”. I’m still waiting for the iPad to be released in Germany, so I can also wait a few months for software updates. Give them some well deserved rest.

• Just realized my desktop browser displays 1098 × 772 pixels. Close enough to a certain device's resolution to know it is great for surfing. #
• My iPhone web app GPS Coordinates is "Featured web app" & "Staff Pick" on http://www.apple.com/webapps/utilities — http://embr.it/gpscoords #
• BBQ! #
• Damn you Apple! Universal binaries for @instapaper and Delivery Status by @junecloud start appearing in the German App Store. 1 month early… #
• Tried to watch a video about web standards and HTML5/JavaScript. Flash didn't want me to: http://twitpic.com/1cu4aa #
• Got no iPad, but the iPad simulator is now available to everyone. My web apps all work on the iPad: http://cinnamonthoughts.org/iphone/ #