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A while back, Gruber published an interesting article proposing iPhone UI design guidelines that developers could adhere to in order to preserve that “iPhone-Likeness” that we’ve all come to admire in apps.
You know what I’m talking about. That look that appears so flawless and stunning in an app that it functions just as good as it looks and yet becomes incredibly difficult to imagine that a work that remarkable could have been conceived and constructed by people.
I’m no mind reader but when Gruber said “figure out the absolute least you need to do to implement the idea and then polish the hell out of the experience”, I undoubtedly believe the TapBot team has done just that and have implemented that thinking into every one of their apps and even more so with their latest creation; Pastebot.
I refuse to go into detail to elaborate on what the app does other than to show you by the photo what it looks like because the website already does a phenomenal job with that but even more so because a big portion of my excitement for new software involves personally discovering how great something is on my own and I won’t take that away from you.
The most common function on a computer (Copy & Paste) has been now completely revolutionized on a mobile device. I love the iPhone but even more so brilliant masterminds who bang out amazing sh*t by sprucing up the mundane.
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qTweeter - Fastest Way to Update Your Status →
I use Twitter everyday even if my participation includes just being vigilant on what others have to say without me saying a word all day. Quite frankly checking in has become as standard as having a bowl of cereal in the morning but when you come across a new way to enjoy that same routine, you suddenly gain a greater enthusiasm for wanting to continue a process that you suddenly enjoy even more.
As much as I consider myself a faithful Tweetie user, qTweeter - an application available only through the Cydia Store is this ingenious one of a kind status update application that lets you tweet and update your Facebook status like never before.It is straight to the point, super fast, ultra cool and darn effective. You launch qTweeter by simply sliding your finger down from the status area and can start tweeting right away. Once done, you simply press the update button to update your Facebook status or Twitter or even both. qTweeter saves you the hassle of updating your Facebook status and Twitter separately by doing both for you instantly.
The prime feature of the application is that there’s no need to quit the one you may be using in order to activate qTweeter. Talk about streamlined productivity.
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QuickReply for SMS on iPhone →
One of the perks of Jailbreaking your iPhone is the ability to explore all those “what if” questions we have in thinking what it would be like if Apple implemented even more neat features to the device.
Imagine being completely immersed reading an article on your feed reader of choice and you suddenly receive a text that you want to reply to but have to endure the process of quitting the application to respond to that urgent SMS. Tough luck because you have no other choice.
As an avid texture, there’s nothing more I would appreciate for a way to avoid that hassle and just quickly reply to a text within the application itself so as to maintain that “flow” that often ruins the iPhone experience.
For all you Jailbreakers, there’s a solution for that and it’s called QuickReply SMS via Cydia which I highly recommend.
Once you receive SMS, You will see the Message box with 3 buttons including Close, View and Reply, If you choose View it will close the current app and launch the default Messages app, If you choose Reply then it pops the Keyboard and text box just like what your default Messages app shows when you reply, only difference is that will be in transparent form. Once you hit the Send button, It will close.
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Moving Multiple Icons on your SpringBoard →
Among the many impressive features that iTunes 9 brought to the table, the one that I was mostly excited about was the ability to manage your iPhone/iPod Touch applications directly from iTunes. It’s purpose was to essentially minimize the hassle of fiddling through so many pages of Apps that needed organization.
The amount of times that I’ve used this feature? Twice and while it’s effective, I really never use it because the ideal solution for me would have been to implement a new approach to simplifying this burden right into the device rather than finding a way around it with iTunes.
It’s no surprise that I’m quite fond of my jailbroken iPhone and through Cydia, I found this ingenious add-on called MultiIcon Mover which allows you to move multiple iPhone SpringBoard icons at once very quickly and easily.
Among so many other admired tweaks that I would love to see be native features on the iPhone, this video gives you a quick demonstration of how the multiple icon moving function works on mine after installing it.
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Separate Twitter Apps
Unknowingly I seemed to have established a framework for how I handle my participation on Twitter. The biggest thing to remember about the service is that it’s a tool for strengthening our communication and not bringing on more confusion to try to keep up with everything that happens.
At first glance it may seem contradictory that I have several Twitter Apps installed but they each serve a distinctive purpose that maintain sanity in my involvement with the service.
Twitter Apps I Use
- Tweetie 2 - Just recently upgraded from Tweetie 1 and this is the dominant App responsible for any form of Twitter interaction you can think of. It’s just beautifuly designed, super fast and it’s the epitome of what a Twitter experience should be like.
- BirdBrain - I turned off email notifications to track new followers and now rely on this App to brief me more on them as well as controlling spammers.
- Birdhouse - Indespensible App that literally contains a litany of Tweets that may or may not see the light of day as well as pre-written content that I intend on publishing when the day comes.
- Twitbit - Another well-designed Twitter client but I have to admit that I don’t publish much content from it but what justifies its presence is the push-notification feature that I enjoy. It works perfectly and any mentions that I get, I launch Tweetie to reply to them.
Wouldn’t it be great if we had just one App that accomplished all of these functions? With the exception of push-notification intergration in all Twitter clients, my answer to the question would be no.
Too many features just equals too many problems, which leads to cluckiness which later leads to forsaking a product that sounds appealing to use in theory but not in reality. I love having separate Apps that excel in one function only.
Features sell but if they get in the way of making them work for you, it defeats the purpose saying you have a product that does everything.
