Ping: Fantastic or Fail?

iTunes 10 – Apple’s latest edition of their (in?)famous music management software that is the heart of nearly every iPhone, iPod & iPad (and even a Motorola phone!) – is up for review here at Gapps.me, along with some of it’s latest features, including Ping, Apple’s attempt at a social-music network.

iTunes 10 has undergone a complete makeover, and the new silver theme running through the app is quite cool after a while. At first, you probably won’t find what you’re looking for, but after a few days of use I quite like it
The new iTunes 10 logo (see the tip of the “i” in the Ping logo below) has received negative comments due to it’s radical change, but then again isn’t that what Apple is all about? Anyway it has grown on me, moving from “awful” to “moderate”.

But the latest & greatest feature of iTunes has to be Ping, dubbed “A social network for music. Join the conversation”. It’s Apple’s attempt to create social networks between iTunes users & friends, something Last.fm has been doing pretty well so far! (Fingers crossed it isn’t crushed!)

Ping is completely free, and required an iTunes account (aka Apple ID). It’s idea is similar to Twitter (and so is the slogan – “Join the Conversation”) in that users “follow” eachother’s updates and purchases. Users range from the average consumer to celebrities like Lady Gaga and Coldplay. An underlying feature seems to be users can connect more with their favourite artists, although in reality it’s probably just a way for more personalised advertising (iAds anybody?). It’s definitely a feature I won’t be using!

It’s disappointing the functionality of Ping isn’t extended within the user’s iTunes library. Currently, in order to “like” or post content about an album I like, I need to be viewing the album in the iTunes store. This means, unless I’m about to purchase the music at the same time, I won’t be going back to the iTunes store page to “like” an album. Which is ridiculous. Surely it makes sense to have a little “like” button next to the currently playing / selected iTunes song in my library? Still. Ping’s functions may be extended in the future – just like the Game Center on iOS4 – it’s only at 4.1 & 4.2 that the Game Center is being pushed into play

So that’s iTunes 10 and Ping. Draw your own conclusions from it, don’t just take my word for it (or anyone else’s, for that matter). It’s a free download from Apple.com, and you’re going to need it if you plan on upgrading your iDevice to 4.1 or 4.2!

[Download iTunes 10]
[My Ping profile]

Missed the keynote? Or just want to watch Steve onstage again? Now you can!

The Apple Keynote podcast is a list of every Keynote presented by Apple corporates since January 2007. So you can rewatch the unveiling of the iPad, check out Steve demo~ing iOS4 again, or go way back and watch the unveiling of the Macbook Air, again!

Since it is a podcast, it is one of the few things free from Apple, so there is nothing to loose by download it (except some precious hard drive space!)

Click here to download it from iTunes [DOWNLOAD]

Dailybooth's Homepage

DailyBooth is a website dedicated to the idea of “photoblogging” – users take pictures of themselves daily and post them on the site – and thus they are sharing their life with the world. It’s a fun site filled with funny people, emotional people, and some brilliant people That send a smile to your face when you see what they’re up to!

Accounts are £Free, so they are encouraging you to signup, so there really is nothing to stop you*! There is a whole community of good people on Dailybooth who interact regularly - and Dailybooth has lots of ways to interact!

Users comment on other’s photos. They can comment with text or photos – thus the fun continues 
If you’ve used Twitter, then you’ll understand the idea behind “following” people. If you haven’t, “following” means to receive user updates. Users on Dailybooth also follow each other to receive updates through the Dashboard.

Dailybooth's Homepage

*There is only one reason you may object to a service where you share pictures of yourself. “Weird men” I’m going to call it, but you know what it is. It’s the weirdo’s you hear about on the news, etc etc.
But Dailybooth’s development team aren’t stupid. They have a privacy feature (which I myself use, but not for the reason above) which requires you to allow or deny users who wish to follow you, so you are (in essence) in complete control of your Dailybooth experience. It’s this kind of feature that reassures users (and indeed, Parents too) and makes the Dailybooth experience that bit more secure!

So that’s Dailybooth. Life in pictures. Be sure to signup and request a follow from me – I’m “jdryden”!

[DailyBooth home]
[@DailyBooth on Twitter]
[My DailyBooth profile]

This is an article from TechUnwrapped

This is an article written by James Dryden on TechUnwrapped.com. Click here to see the original site.

Markup for iPad on the iTunes Store

The iPad is definitely a “game changer”. Since purchasing it, I’ve only used my Mac for editing PHP content for my online projects. All of my web browsing, purchasing and (a considerable amount of) gaming is now done on my iPad.

But then I starting thinking. A huge App Store. Over 200,000 apps already. There must be a decent editing app for the iPad by now?
So in the end I found two apps for editing HTML, PHP and other languages. So this is a head-to-head review of the best iPad editors – Markup for iPad and Editor for iPad.

Editor for iPad, made by YBOOM International, is an simple text editor for the iPad, with syntax highlighting for a wide variety of languages. Unfortunately, without FTP connection and the strange way users upload and download files to and from the iPad, Editor for iPad is not worth the £2.39 price tag the developer is asking for it. I used it for a couple of hours before deciding to find a new editor, purely because uploading and downloading files was such a hassle! Then again, in an area of no connectivity (i.e. No WiFi or 3G) this is an interesting way to edit websites since it does technically work offline – not worth the hassle though :/

Markup for iPad, developed by Soroush Khanlou, is a serious iPad web editor. Featuring FTP sites for easy access to multiple sites, folder support in the FTP directory, editing and uploading files in HTML, CSS & PHP (unfortunately I haven’t tested any others although .htaccess can be seen!). Markup seems to be the best choice for iPad web development, due to the ease of use and FTP connections. I currently have 3 websites on file for Markup and switching between them couldn’t be easier!

The difficult issue faced by any app developer is the keyboard. Coders frequently use awkward symbols (I say awkward – it’s only awkward because Apple place them in the most awkward places ever! [.?123 ] > [#+=] > [~] for example). Developers should be able to customise their own keyboard with the relevant keys – but nevermind. That’s an issue with Apple. Not really part of the review.
But the Markup Developers have thought that issue through. There’s a small menu containing shortcuts adding the most-used-symbols of any coder – [<] [</] [=" "] [>] [{] [}] – which is a godsend when coding in PHP. (For example, <?php echo “hello”;?> writes the word hello on the screen. See how many symbols there is in that?!) Proof that a little goes a long way!

So, clearly from the single paragraph about Editor for iPad vs the two about Markup, I’d say Markup is the winner. It’s smooth, clever interface coupled with it’s FTP on-server editing qualities makes it the perfect companion for any web developer and his/her iPad.

Markup is a £5.99 ($9.99) download from iTunes. A bit more expensive than Editor for iPad, but well worth it!!

[iTunes link]

It’s very, very simple and involves one of the best apps you’ve got on your device. The Internet.

Simply hit up http://jailbreak.com in Safari, on ANY iDevice you own, and it will be Jailbroken after all the data is downloaded, and Cydia is installed! Be careful if you’ve got an unlock though, as this will negate your unlock. Unless you have bought an unlocked iPhone 4 Direct from Apple that is!

Have fun people, because Comex has done it again.

Toodles,

Conor