Back to Work: Nouns and Verbs

Several years ago, my young daughter asked me what exactly a lawyer does. After some thinking, I explained that I help people with really big problems. Ever since then, that has become my “go to” job description. Every time I get around any serious networking types and tell them that’s what I do, they look at me like I’m a weirdo. Then they patiently tell me how I’m not using enough terms like “results oriented”, “paradigm shifting”, and “excellence”. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, what I really do is help people solve big problems. After years of taking abuse for this rebellious elevator pitch, this week’s Back to Work gave me some much-needed validation.

Home Screens - Stephen Hackett

Stephen Hackett (Twitter) is one of my favorite bloggers with an eclectic mix of Apple news, tips, and culture at 512 Pixels. Stephen was nice enough to share his home screen.

What are your most interesting home screen apps?

Overall, I think my choices are pretty boring. The apps on my home screen are all from widely-used categories. Everyone takes notes, checks the weather and listens to music. I haven’t even changed the position of some of them, like Messages, Calendar and Photos.

That said, the least well-known one (to non-nerds) is probably OmniFocus. My entire life is inside that app.

What is your favorite app?

Camera+ wins this one for me. It is fast, includes some great editing tools and has social sharing built-in. While I use Instagram heavily, the raw speed of this app makes it a great replacement for the built-in Camera app, at least on my iPhone 4.

Which app is your guilty pleasure?

Currently, it is Instacast. It’s the best podcatcher I’ve tried. I like finding apps that work like Apple-built ones, and this one fits that bill. I listen to a ton of shows, both on the 5by5 and 70Decibels network, of which I am a part.

That said, I’m not sure “guilty pleasure” is a great term. I don’t play games on my iPhone, so Instacast is the closest thing I’ve got, I suppose.

What is the app you are still missing?

I would love a really good WordPress app. I’m begging you, Daniel Jalkut. Begging.

How many times a day do you use your iPhone/iPad?

I use my iPhone heavily throughout the work day. It’s my podcast machine, so it is usually always plugged in to my truck while driving. During the day, I use it mainly as a phone.

I use my iPad for a very specific set of actions. I love OmniFocus on the iPad, and use it daily. I also enjoy Instapaper and (as plain as it seems) Safari on the tablet as well. These apps see heavy usage in the morning and evenings at home. At work, I use the iPad to review documents and take meeting notes.

What is your favorite feature of the iPhone/iPad?

I like that there is very little that can (or does) go wrong. If an app is crashy, usually a reboot or re-install will fix it. While I love Mac OS X, iOS is just much simpler to the user.

If you were in charge at Apple, what would you add or change?

I’d like to see the home screen on the iPhone rotate, like on the iPad. (Oh, and they should fix the deal where icons move around when orientation changes on the iPad.)

Anything else you’d like to share?

A lot of people who seen screenshots of my iPhone or iPad wonder why I don’t have Simplenote handy. While I do like the service — and used it for a long time — I now use PlainText on iOS, which syncs via Dropbox. On the Mac, I use nvALT, again syncing with Dropbox. I love plain text files, and Dropbox (of course) handles them very well. I simplified, and Simplenote didn’t make the cut.

Thanks Stephen.

To read about more home screens, clicky here

The Android App Store Problem

Eric Schmidt predicts that in six months, iOS developers will be flocking to Android, even if they don’t like it. Ummm, think again.

Android’s marketshare continues to climb and that is presumably a good thing for Android but mere numbers does not create a vibrant app market. There need to be two pieces for a successful platform app store: 1. a trustworthy store, and 2. customers. Android has neither of these.

The Theoretical Android App Store

While there are no shortage of issues with Apple’s own App Store, there are a few things it really nails. Apple provides a safe and easy environment to deliver apps and seperate customers from their money. This is where Android misses the boat. If Google wants to attract developers, they shouldn’t worry so much about marketshare and instead focus on getting a reliable payment system and an app purchase environment where customers aren’t constantly getting stiffed. Amazon seems to be making the best efforts to fix this but there are some truly legendary stories about what a spectacular job they are doing screwing it up. With so many different form factors, screen sizes, and system specs, it is going to be a lot harder for Google (or somebody) to deliver the iOS App Store experience on Android.

“Free is Better! Hooray!”

Android owners don’t buy apps. With very few exceptions, every Android owner I’ve talked to is only interested in free apps. To hell with the user interface. Put ads everywhere. Just don’t charge any money. (Perhaps all of the on-screen ads explains the arms race of larger screen sizes.) I don’t mean this as some sort of character attack against Android owners, many of whom are very nice people. I just think that, for whatever reason, Android users are not interested in paying for mobile apps. I’ve been talking to Android and iOS owners about this for years and the theme is consistent. iOS owners buy lots of apps: Android owners don’t.

I don’t know if it is a lack of trust in the payment system or simply a culture of “free” but ask your Android toting friends how many apps they’ve purchased and the answer will be few, if any. The short of it is that Android devices could multiply like locusts but if people don’t buy apps for them, developers will stay away.

Pearl Harbor

It seems 9/11 is the day our generation remembers but for our parents, the day in infamy was December 7, Pearl Harbor day. The Legal History Blog has an interesting take on remembering Pearl Harbor and avoiding the trap of thinking things were any simpler back then.

Mutually Exclusive Terms

Facebook and Private Photos.

Productive Macs Bundle

This is one of the best bundles I’ve seen in some time. Having already paid full price for most of these apps, I really wish this deal was available a few years ago.

MacSparky.com is sponsored by Bee Docs Timeline 3D. Make a timeline presentation with your Mac.

Last Day for Discounted Macworld|iWorld iFan Pass

The hours are counting down for the $75 iFan pass to Macworld|iWorld. Tomorrow it goes up to $100. While that is still a great value, why not save $25. With $25 you could:

• Buy all of the episodes of Firefly
• Buy a couple of those frappuccino thingies at Starbucks
• Take your significant other to a movie
• Buy my book
• Convert the money to $2 bills and act like Steve Wozniak 12.5 times

I’m already hard at work on my sessions this year which will be fantastic. There is lots of great content and plenty of fun waiting for you at Moscone Center next month so get cracking.

MPU 65: Workflows with Horace Dediu

Mac Power Users Episode 65, Workflows with Horace Dediu, is available for download. Horace is the mind behind Asymco.com. In addition to some very insightful information about how he goes about his analysis at Asymco, Horace speaks at some length about where presentation software and technology is heading. I particularly like the way he explained presenters need to use stagecraft. I spent several years on stage through high school and college and, in hindsight, realize I use many of the tricks learned there in my day job. Get the episode over at 5by5. Also, don’t forget to subscribe in iTunes.

App Store Bundle

One (of several) reasons I’ve soured on bundle deals is that I really prefer buying apps through the Mac App Store. Zero Ninety Nine is the first Mac App Store bundle-ish deal I’ve seen. Several apps are marked down to 99 cents for the rest of today. This is interesting. I wonder if it will take off.

Refurbished Apple Products

Macworld has a nice write up about buying refurbished Macs. I’ve bought several Macs over the years this way. Indeed both of my current Macs and my wife’s MacBook all come from the the Refurb Store. I’ve never had a problem. An argument could be made that refurbished Macs have even more love and attention before shipping to you than those hot off the assembly line in China.

If you go that route, there are a few tips:

• Be Patient. Sometimes it takes awhile. Once I decided to replace my iMac, it took 5 weeks for the ‘right deal’ to show up for me in the refurb store. I ended up getting over $600 off on exactly the Mac I wanted.
• Pull the Trigger Fast. When you do see the Mac you want, buy it. The best deals don’t last long.