Brandon Ballentine

The Super Sweet 1Password Trick

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:46:14 -0500

The Super Sweet 1Password Trick :

I can’t believe I haven’t been using this trick until now!

iTunes U Overview

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:00:05 -0500

iTunes U Overview:

A nice overview of the updated iTunes U from an Apple Distinguished Educator.

thenextweb: Apple has begun its countdown to the 25 billionth...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 08:20:42 -0500

thenextweb:

Apple has begun its countdown to the 25 billionth app downloaded from the App Store, and, as with previous milestones, is offering a prize for the person to grab it. This time around it’s a $10,000 App Store Gift Card, reports Macrumors. (via Apple is Counting Down to App Store Hitting 25B Downloads)

A quick video of AirPlay in Mountain Lion. There’s also a...

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:27:45 -0500

A quick video of AirPlay in Mountain Lion. There’s also a nice post over at 9to5mac that discusses the new feature.

I love their tip for getting around the campus wifi issue. That’s something I’ve been battling lately as well.

Better yet, using AirPlay Mirroring on 2011 Mac notebooks does not need a local wireless network, because the machine can create an ad hoc wireless network to pair with the Apple TV. This is gold for road warriors and educators who only need a MacBook and an Apple TV to present their portfolio or teaching material on the big screen.

Apple’s iCloud Is No Dropbox Killer (It’s Much More)

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 22:35:00 -0500

Apple’s iCloud Is No Dropbox Killer (It’s Much More):

With Google, however, the philosophy is that file creation itself can be migrated to the cloud. An online office suite is “good enough,” if not as good, as a native one. And “good enough” will win due to ease of use. With almost a completely opposing view, Apple’s iCloud is doing the reverse: bringing the capabilities of the cloud to the richer, more robust native apps. This includes not just office apps in iWork, but through the use of developer APIs, it will extend to any apps that need to be iCloud-enabled. Although today, iCloud support is more limited for third-parties, the APIs will improve in time. Eventually, any app running on the Apple platform (desktop or mobile), will have the tools to move data between its different installations.

Apple’s approach makes a lot of sense to me. Their solution plays to each platform’s strengths. Native apps can offer more polished interfaces and increased performance, while the cloud can be used to enhance the user experience by offering functionality such as syncing.

I spend a good portion of my day helping instructors work within my school’s learning management system. It’s surprising how frequently browser issues cause problems for everyone. Many of these problems could be solved if a native client was available to handle the UI, local saving of data, etc. The web portion of the system could essentially be reduced to a set of APIs that would allow customers to better customize and brand the product. Just a thought …

A short video of Lia and our pilot landing us safely in some...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 08:35:13 -0500

A short video of Lia and our pilot landing us safely in some windy weather.

courtenaybird: Apple Makes 75% of Mobile Phone Profits, With...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 07:09:20 -0500

courtenaybird:

Apple Makes 75% of Mobile Phone Profits, With Only 9% of the Phones

TidBITS Entertainment: Introducing Bookle, an EPUB Reader for Mac OS X

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 08:28:25 -0500

TidBITS Entertainment: Introducing Bookle, an EPUB Reader for Mac OS X:

minimalmac:

Enter Bookle — a straightforward, elegant EPUB reader for Mac OS X that maintains your library of EPUBs, available now from the Mac App Store for $9.99. Bookle 1.0 is intentionally simple, since Peter and I wanted to get something out quickly and then react to requests from users, but it has all the core features needed to read DRM-free EPUBs.

As an author of books delivered in a DRM free ePub format, this looks nifty. I also like that they have released just enough to allow for customers to decide what features get added in the future.

Bookle costs only $9.99, and it’s available from the Mac App Store.

I’m glad to see an ePub reader with a great UI hit the Mac market. I thought Apple’s education announcement last month would include an iBooks for desktops, but sadly it did not.

Can you see where Miu Mius is hiding?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 08:23:18 -0500

Can you see where Miu Mius is hiding?

Smart page turning demo using Apple private API. Very cool!

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:48:01 -0500

Smart page turning demo using Apple private API. Very cool!

finerios: The iPad’s split keyboard has phantom buttons. If...

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:29:00 -0500

finerios:

The iPad’s split keyboard has phantom buttons. If you’re used to typing Y with your left hand, you can.

To enable this keyboard, tap-hold on the “toggle keyboard” button in the lower right to get a menu, or tap-hold on it and drag upwards. Reverse that to reunite the two halves back to normal at the bottom.

Ten Things To Think About When Designing Your iPad App

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 12:22:03 -0500

Ten Things To Think About When Designing Your iPad App:

While this post is directed more towards native iPad app development, many of the suggestions are also applicable to any sort of app or web development. I especially liked the part on minimizing user input based on what you already know about the user. That’s a topic we covered at length in my mobile web design course.

No one wants to spend a lot of time setting up a $1.99 app. Leverage as much of what the iPad and other websites know about your users as possible (with their permission, of course). Could you use the user’s location, calendar, Twitter feed or contacts list to make the app smarter and more personalized?

Last weekend, I was luckily enough to get to go on a discovery...

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:22:00 -0500

Lia getting ready for her flight

The Tennessee River

Buffalo Mountain

Gay Street Bridge

Island home airport

Last weekend, I was luckily enough to get to go on a discovery flight with Lia (she’s working towards her pilot’s license) to Buffalo Mountain and all over Knoxville, Tennessee. We had a fantastic time even though high winds made for a bumpy ride. Hats off to the pilot for landing us safely despite the crosswinds.

A Writer's Reaction to iBook Author's EULA

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:00:06 -0500

A Writer's Reaction to iBook Author's EULA:

A lot of people seemed upset with iBooks Author’s EULA after Apple’s announcement of the program. Basically, it gives content creators the ability to distribute free books in just about any way they’d like, but specifies paid books are only available though the iBooks store. The author of this article brings up some good points:

Folks are calling the software “Author” but its real name is “iBooks Author”. That kind of sums it up. This is software designed to help you author books for iBooks.

Apple isn’t giving us a new piece of software to create enhanced eBooks. It’s giving us an easy way to create great looking iBooks for sale in the iBooks store.

The author also points out that while the EULA limits your rights to sell iBooks through other avenues, it does not claim any ownership over the actual content of your work.

In addition, if you want to give your book away you can use Apple’s tools to produce a book that you distribute any way you want. I don’t have those rights when I write for any other publisher.

benjaminpaton: 5 things Tumblr can do that you might not have realised

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:51:00 -0500

benjaminpaton: 5 things Tumblr can do that you might not have realised

welovephoneography: Hey iPhoneographers - the Kinotopic app is...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:18:58 -0500

welovephoneography:

Hey iPhoneographers - the Kinotopic app is FREE today, January 18th!

This app lets you make cinemagraphs easily, like the neat one we made above!

Psst, don’t have an iPhone but wanna try your hand at making cinemagraphs? Check out our tutorial on ‘em!

Video

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:06:56 -0500

Apple to announce tools, platform to "digitally destroy" textbook publishing

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:38:00 -0500

Apple to announce tools, platform to "digitally destroy" textbook publishing:

This article suggests Apple is set to unveil a “Garage Band for e-books” on Thursday, which I would love to see happen. The article doesn’t mention it, but I’d also like to see a version of iBooks for the desktop.

Apple's "education announcement"

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:32:36 -0500

Apple invites media for ‘education announcement’ in New York, next Thursday, Jan. 19

While an iBook/textbook announcement probably makes the most sense, how great would it be if Apple released a learning management system? They have some of the key components already in place with iTunes-U, iBooks, and their suite of media creation tools. As I spent the day battling D2L errors (my school’s LMS), I kept thinking, “what if there was a system that just worked … “

Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:59:00 -0500

Misconceptions About iOS Multitasking:

Let me be as clear as I can be: the iOS multitasking bar does not contain “a list of all running apps”. It contains “a list of recently used apps”. The user never has to manage background tasks on iOS.

One thing to note, however, is that removing apps from the multitasking bar is a very good way to close an app experiencing problems. I have to do this with the Netflix app all the time. The app frequently freezes on a particular view. Unless I remove the app from the multitasking bar, the next time I access the app, it will attempt to return to that same view.