All Articles in Web apps

Ah, the joys of public transportation. Nothing else quite compares to the stimulating experience of standing in the company of drunks and derelicts at a bus stop late in waining hours of Saturday night, waiting for a fuming smoke filled bus to arrive, concluded with sharing a body fluid-stained seat with the unwashed, unwashed masses. But enough about my college days.

If you happen to live San Francisco, a new service called MoMuni provides instant real-time access to bus or train routes and waypoints, right on your iPhone. Users can select the route and stop of the bus or train they’re waiting for and then determine how far away the next 3 are. What’s more, you can bookmark stops most often used, like commuting from home or work, for example, and access them from a tabbed interface. Nice.

Of course, once you board the bus… you’re on your own. One word: deodorant.

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It looks like Apple might have some web apps of their own that are perhaps going live very soon. Both the Register and the Boy Genius Report indicate that the ‘recent downloads‘ (RSS link) page of Apple’s points to a few iPhone web applications. It unfortunately looks like Apple has wised up, and removed the applications from their feed, but you can at least view the screenshots in all of their glory courtesy of tBGR. Although they’re in Apple’s download RSS feed, all indications point to this web app directory being simple repository for online web apps. That is, not web apps that are run from your iPhone, aka widgets.

Longtime forum member Cliff Maier (cmaier in the forums) just posted his sixth full game, making him long overdue for accolades on the front page. All of the games are simple, clean, and optimal candidates for boonies mode data URLs. All of the games are small and make excellent use of the fonts present on the iPhone; due to his careful programming, all of the games com in at around 80k (and even less for ThumbTrek). This is important, as it means that the games will still be eminently playable over EDGE networks.

• Tic-tac-toe with a twist
  Tic-Tac-Whoa, the first game, is a tic-tac-toe game that’s been amped up with bonuses, obstacles, treasures, and other fun stuff.
• Vegas Solitaire
  A simple and fun Vegas solitaire game. Each hand sets you back $52, and you earn money by applying cards to the foundation.
• Vegas Blackjack
  Just like it sounds, Blackjack with Las Vegas rules. This is the newest inclusion to his online arsenal of games.
• Jacks or Better Video Poker
  For those that prefer the slot machines, there’s the video variety of poker. Maier’s straightforward draw poker “Jacks or Better” type does not score single pairs that aren’t face cards. Best inclusion: the presence of the ‘Max bet’ option.
• Deuces Wild Video Poker
  Like Jacks or Better, but with deuces as wild cards. The game does not score hands less than 3 of a kind; if your hand is a single pair or two pair, you’ll lose the hand. I’ll admit that do I miss the ‘max bet’ option in deuces wild.
  
• ThumbTrek Port
  ThumbTrek is a port of a very old but popular Star Trek game from the 70s.

The New York Times has a neat article on third party applications and how the iPhone is currently the only device on AT&T’s network that doesn’t support them. The article has some good things to say about Palm too, which I always welcome. The big gist of it is how Jobs’ quote from a January Newsweek interview doesn’t jive with reality:

“You don’t want your phone to be an open platform… You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.”

Whereas the reality of the situation is that Cingular/ATT welcomed development on every single other phone they had on their network, whether it be Java/J2ME, PalmOS development, Windows Development, or Flash Lite / whatever. This is backed up by Mark Bercow, Senior VP of Development at Palm. Talk about your David vs. Goliath situations here; I feel like Steve Jobs’ famous reality distortion field just failed for a second or something. But, there’s another quote that the Times dug up that I’d forgotten about from his video conversation with Walt Mossberg at the All Things D conference in July:

“This is a very important trade-off between security and openness. We want both. We’ve got good ideas, and sometime later this year, we can open it up to third-party apps, and keep security.”

The more I think about this quote, the more I think he’s talking about widgets here. You only really have to worry about a widget’s security if there’s a browser bug or exploit, and HTML/CSS/AJAX is definitely open. He probably doesn’t want to open up a full native SDK until the software and hardware platforms are stable and proven, much like he did with the original Mac series. That is, if he wants a full native SDK available to the public at all.

There are a few other interesting tidbits from the article that I can’t help but mention:

1. Two-thirds of Treo owners have purchased 3rd party apps
2. Ten percent of Treo owners have purchased 10 or more 3rd party apps
3. AT&T has a website to get developers on all of their development platforms except the iPhone.

Ars Technica has sources that indicate that Apple is prepping Mobile Safari to run applications and web pages offline. You know, widgets. These widgets will use the same technologies as the AJAX web apps that are out there now — HTML, CSS, asynchronous Javascript and XML, cookies, etc., but with the added bonus of a little extra local storage. Maybe some javascript functions that allow you to access the actual API of the phone for contact / calendar integration and the like will make it as well.

figure 1: the Widget manager from OSX 10.4. The iPhone has been destined for widgets. Note the similarity of this on the iPhone (figure 2)

figure 2: The bottom bar on the iPhone. Note the similarity. I do not think the similarity is accidental. Why would the iPod Touch have a different bottom bar?

Apple is working on a Google Gears-like system to cache online applications for use in mode, or other situations where the network is not available. Their expected timeline for announcing or delivering this is January. In case you’re new to the Apple world, January is code for Macworld Expo, the same Expo in which Jobs announced the iPhone.

Lastly, their source indicated that Apple is not currently working on a native SDK for release to the general public, and that AJAX Web apps are going to be the way to go. Ars Technica’s Apple source has expressed some frustration in that:

“You can’t write [bleep]ing [bleep] in that…. Jobs is a control freak and doesn’t want people messing with perfection.”

He’s not alone in his frustration. You can practically read the spittle over at gizmodo. Jesus Diaz is so pissed he’s replaced every outbound link in his article with another link that links back to Gizmodo. Macworld.co.uk meanwhile is confusing Javascript with Java. There won’t be Java on the iPhone. Jobs confirmed that maybe a day after he announced the iPhone in January.

Speaking personally, I know that it’s not the same as having native applications. But, I am glad that there will finally be some mechanism for apps beyond the data URL trick and bookmarklets. I’ve long said that I expect some sort of 3rd party app, whether it be widgets or native. Frankly, I’d much prefer native, and that’s part of the reason that I’ll likely never update my hacked 4GB iPhone (I need it for screenshots and the like), but widgets can do a lot of what many, if not most, people want, and I eagerly look forward to that on the 8GB iPhone.

Apple has posted their Human Interface Guidelines (HIG, PDF link) for programming for the iPhone. What this means is that they’ve completed the rules and guidelines for how they expect you, the iPhone user, to interact with applications on the device. It also means that now that they have interface guidelines, they can begin focusing on building the software they need for native third party applications and not web applications. Yes, I said it; worst of all, I believe it. Even worse, I think this is the big news of the weekend, even more than bricked iPhones. You’ll have to brave the cut for why.

My day revolves around web-based RSS readers. Google Reader, Bloglines Beta, NewsGator…you name it, I’ve tried it. Unfortunately those services aren’t conveniently rendered on iPhone’s 3.5″ display, and require lots of pinching, jiggering, and side-scrolling to view content. Adding to that frustration, Safari tends to choke on AJAX code which these online readers employ heavily - crashing the browser and dumping you back to the home screen.

Enter Newsgator Online for mobile users; a service designed for small screens with low overhead.

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Are you out of shape? Are you so flabby that even the tightest pants can’t control your bouncing badonkadonk butt? Haven’t seen your genitals in years? Well put down that jelly donut and grab your iPhone, because a few minutes of daily workout and a site called Gyminee can help whip you into shape in no time.

Check this out. Point your iPhone to gyminee.com/iphone, sign up for a free account. And from there you can download how-to videos and view them right on your iPhone. Watch as instructors show you various proper exercise routines. Once you get off on the demos, you can track your workout right from Safari. Pretty cool.

Openings are limited however, as the program is only available to beta testers. So sign up today. I haven’t tried this service out myself because at 5.9′ and 145lbs, weight loss isn’t exactly on my ToDo list. Friends tell me if I get any thinner I can be used as a coat hanger. Har.

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Transmedia corp. announced that Microsoft Word documents now editable with their Glide service on the iPhone. The same service is compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux desktops, and a bevy of handhelds. The PR bit claims that spreadsheet editing is coming in September but make no mention of Excel compatibility, and they have a presentation app but no mention of PowerPoint compatibility. Free and paid versions of their service are available.

From their PR bit:

“Glide provides the convenience and security of access to all of your most important documents and other digital files on your iPhone,” said TransMedia Chairman and CEO, Donald Leka. “So now you can work in Glide on your iPhone in one hand while you enjoy a cup of Starbucks coffee in the other hand.”

Look at me, making with the stupid Beach Boys references. Couldn’t you just slap me over the head with an iPhone (not your own of course)? Back to topic…

Netvibes, the bastard poster child of Web 2.0, is offering an iPhone optimized frontend to its mobile service for busy users on the go. Just point your browser to m.netvibes.com, which I conveniently prelinked for your clicking pleasure, login to your account and immerse yourself in the good vibrations of Netvibes.

User tip #53: For best results, create a new tab in your Netvibes profile, from your desktop, called “Mobile” and make it a simple one column page with only the bare necessities of info and widgets. Then use that page as your Mobile Netvibes experience on iPhone. You’re welcome.

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