by Andy DeSoto on July 31, 2008
“The difference in quality and usefulness amongst the free iPhone apps is staggering; a few are basically drawings with affiliate links.”
- Merlin Mann, July 30, 2008
Third party applications are the future, the Internet seems to agree. As closed systems become a thing of the past, more and more technology services turn to eager third-party developers to craft new and unique applications, interfaces, and utilities in order to better the user experience.
Unfortunately, when the tools for application creation are available to any Manny, Moe, or Jack, an enormous quality discrepancy is almost guaranteed. As Merlin Mann correctly intuits, Apple’s new iPhone and iPod Touch Application Store is becoming one such instance of this discrepancy.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a problem of this caliber, though: it’s easy to draw a comparison between Apple’s current directory woes and those of the social networking giant Facebook.
[click to continue...]
by Andy DeSoto on July 22, 2008
It’s been a busy week in the world of web design and content management. Three websites near and dear to my heart have either completed or are nearing enormous overhauls: Facebook, the William & Mary homepage, and yours truly, andydesoto.com. Here’s a brief report featuring what to expect.
Facebook
My personal favorite social networking website, Facebook, recently began to roll out its redesigned profile as of yesterday. Sleek, simpler, and a total rearrangement, this well-done design is guaranteed to bug thousands of Facebook users for at least several months. Personally, though, I think it’s great for a number of reasons:
- Better user control over items in the Mini-Feed (the most groundbreaking part of the site)
- More space for media such as photos and videos
- Reduced application clutter (thank goodness!)
- An interesting tabbed interface that will surely become increasingly useful
[click to continue...]
by Andy DeSoto on July 9, 2008
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.” - Steve Jobs
Face it: in the digital age, your time is one of your most precious commodities. Never in the known history of the world has a culture needed to perceive, process, and act on information to the extent each and every one of us must today.
Unfortunately for us, though, the same tools that bring human beings together over generations, cultures, and continents—social networking and social media sites—can devour hours and hours of our limited spare time. As our involvement in different services and sites gets more involved and complex, it’s easy to spend exponentially more energy online if our habits go unchecked.
[click to continue...]
