Apr 18

eBooks evolved: O’Reilly’s Safari Bookshelf

The date was July 29, 2003…

I was president and web master of the Western Illinois University Mac Users Group (WIU MUG) and that summer I tested a trial version of the Safari Books Online, now the Safari Bookshelf and it was geek love at first sight!

Today I am a premium subscriber through my job and I can read books online and offline on my iPad.

This is what I wrote back then, and I stand by it today (click on the picture for full size view):

WIU Mug, Review about Safari Tech Books in 2003I went on Safari this summer!
This summer, I had the great opportunity to test a trial version of the “Safari Tech Books Online” atwww.safaribooksonline.com an idea from two of the most popular publishers of IT books: O’Reilly and the Pearson Technology Group.

O’Reilly is a leader in technical resources, and I am sure we all have more than one of their books in our bookshelves… (we all have adopted the little creatures on their covers).

The Pearson Group is dedicated to consumers and professional related technologies, providing also excellente references for the community.

I don’t know how much you use your books and references at work and shool, but this tool definitely made a difference for me this summer.

I am a Quality Assurance engineer for web applications and whenever I am not working I am a student of the ITT master’s degree at WIU.

In my work I use lots of different books that my company owns, and I have purchased my own as well. Sometimes I bring and borrow books so my backpack is usually loaded with literature. But you know the pros and cons of a shared library… whenever you most need a book, it is always taken.

I also rely on my colleagues to have some technical questions answered, and when things get too specific I use the distribution lists from the technologies that I work with, which can take some times days to get some of my problems resolved.

In school you can think of having a similar story with the books at the library being taken and not always returned when you need them.

Well, if after all this introduction you are still reading, that’s because you must feel identified with this situation!!! Good! because what’s next will be very interesting for you!

What’s Safari Tech Books Online?
Safari is an online bookshelf with more than 1000 titles from O’Reilly and the Pearson Technology Group, available 24×7.

How does it work?
The coolest feature is that you can search the entire library and get results within seconds from all the titles available, with links to specific chapters and content on all of the matches.

To be able to access this books you must add it to your “bookshelf”, and depending on your suscription type, you get slots to add books and then be able to:

  • Read books cover to cover
  • Post notes on the books in your bookshelf.
  • Add bookmarks to the books in your bookshelf.

Additionally, your recent searches are stored and are accessible at any time.

Think about it! All the coolest book titles that you see in the bookstores available at your fingertips 24×7!

Cross-book searches in seconds!

Another advantage is the speed to access it, even when using dial-up connections with a 56K modem.

Final word
I definitely recommend it to all those who use this type of books in a regular basis. The Safari Tech Books Online helped me a lot in my work this summer, and also was extremely useful in my Independent Research Study.

They are always adding new books with the coolest, and latest technologies!

I am still laughing at my comment on dial-up connection above while I am posting this on my 15Mbps DSL connection… technology is amazing, isn’t it?

Feb 19

At last, an up-to-date visual guide to “Designing Mobile Interfaces”

Whether you are a seasoned mobile developer or  trying to make it into this field, this book has something for everybody.

Designing Mobile Interfaces is a comprehensive reference guide for mobile design patterns, information architecture, and interactive design.

This book is published by O’Reilly and was written by Steven Hoober and Eric Berkman, a mobile designer and an interaction designer with more than 10 years of experience.

Basics First

The authors start with a comprehensive tour of basic concepts of design and how they apply to mobile interfaces. They also introduce mobile interface design from a practical, end-user-oriented perspective, explaining in detail aspects of design that are often overlooked by novice developers such as: the environment, stimuli, human factors and interaction beyond the GUI.

Design Patterns

The book is then dedicated to document in extensive detail using visual examples and pointing out differences across platforms and/or interaction constraints.

Each pattern consists of the following sections:

  • Problem – the situation being addressed through design (i.e. you want to display a list of data to the user)
  • Solution – the definition of the specific pattern (i.e. Vertical List, Scrolling, etc.)
  • Variations – a list of similar patterns
  • Interaction Details – a description of the actual interaction
  • Presentation Details – a visual representation of the pattern that is OS and platform agnostic
  • Antipatterns – things to watch out for when applying the patterns

The patterns are organized into the following sections throughout the book:

  • Composition (the “pages” where you display information)
  • Display of Information (organizing information for display)
  • Control and Confirmation (dialog boxes and feedback)
  • Revealing More Information (emphasis, hierarchies, displaying results)
  • Widgets (pagination, tabs, 3D effects)
  • Drill down (links, buttons, icons)
  • Labels and Indicators (tool tips, avatars)
  • Information Controls (zooming, scaling, searching, sorting, filtering)
  • Input and Output (text and characters, autocomplete)
  • Interactive Controls (Preses, gestures, cursors, hardware keys)
  • Input and Selection (forms)
  • Audio and Vibration (using voice)
  • Screens, Light and Sensors (LED, screen brightness, orientation, location)

Bottom Line

This is not a book that you will necessarily read from beginning to end, but I encourage you to read the introduction of every section to familiarize yourself with the patterns, and the consult the details within the sections as needed.

The preface and introductory contents of the first chapter of the book have a lot of critical information about the successful application of these patterns, and understanding mobile design.

This book is a must-have reference for those who work or want to work on mobile application design, and I particularly recommend it for those one-guy/girl development shops, as an incredibly valuable asset to ensure an outstanding user experience.

I review for the O'Reilly Blogger Review Program

Jan 07

Why you should NOT buy a Tablet right now…

Tablet

If you are considering buying a new tablet right now, I will seriously beg you to wait!

There is a lot going on in the industry, since 2 of the most important consumer electronic events are happening in the first quarter of the year. One is the Consumer Electronics Show (or “CES” for short) in Las Vegas, USA from Jan 10 – Jan 13, 2012; and the other one is Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona, Spain from Feb 27 – Mar 1, 2012.

These 2 events are where manufacturers showcase their newest products to be released this year, so it’s worth waiting to see what is new in the industry.

What’s worth waiting for:

1. Quad-Core Processors

2011 brought us dual-processors, which had twice the processing power of previous generation tablets. Examples: the Motorola Xyboard (aka Xoom 2), and the HP TouchPad.

2012 is promising to bring quad-core processors for both tablets and cell phone, this means twice the processing power of the newest devices and four times the processing power of previous devices.

2. Better Cameras

People are using video-conferencing applications more and more, so the quality of the cameras is being improved.

3. Bigger, Better and more Durable screens

A popular maker of screens (Gorilla Glass) is making a second generation of their glass which is more flexible and durable.

New Devices to watch for

  • A new iPad is heavily rumored this year with a larger screen, faster speed, and better cameras.
  • Amazon is also supposedly working on a new version of the Kindle Fire.

But if you must buy today

Here are your  choices if you can’t wait:

  • iPad 2 (buy a refurbished one if you can)
  • Motorola Xyboard (WiFi version available for pre-order now, otherwise 4G/WiFi available now in the US).
  • Aasus Transformer Prime (Best Buy)
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab
  • HP TouchPad (if you can’t find one, and if you do want one)

Nov 20

The time is now: switch from iPhone to Android

If you were in doubt, this is the best time ever to switch to Android.

After my contract expired with AT&T and having gotten a brand new 4S, I returned it to the Apple Store and transferred my number to Verizon where I got a Droid Bionic.

Arguably I could have waited a little longer but something like the Galaxy Nexus, but the Bionic sold me on almost every count, enough to make the jump.

My first Android phone was the T-Mobile G1, which was a fantastic phone. A little too bulky, but a really good one indeed. After that I think Android diversified almost too much for its own good, but now it’s coming to a convergence and the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich update (version 4.0) looks fantastic.

So again, if you’ve been tinkering with the idea of switching, go get yourself a new line (on Sprint or Verizon), experience better network speeds, better costumer service than AT&T and enjoy a richer phone experience for one and for all.

More on this topic coming soon.

Update 1: Speed Comparison of my iPhone 4S (AT&T) vs. Droid Bionic (Verizon)

Oct 09

How to Configure Email App to view Hotmail Folders in HP Touchpad

Do you..

  1. …have an HP Touchpad?
  2. …have a Hotmail email account?
  3. …hate that you can’t see your Hotmail folders (i.e. Junk mail, custom folders)?
If you answered yes to all 3 questions above, here is the solution:
  1. Remove your Hotmail account if you already have it configured (Settings>Accounts>select account>Remove Account)
  2. Back in Settings>Accounts click on Add an Account
  3. Select Microsoft Exchange
  4. Click on Manual Setup
  5. Enter your Email Address at the top
  6. For Server Name enter https://m.hotmail.com
  7. Leave Domain blank
  8. For Username enter your whole email address again
  9. Enter your password
  10. Click on Sign In
  11. Next you can choose what services to sync
You can tell whether you succeeded or not if the Account icon looks like a mini MS Outlook icon:
accounts
Now go check on your Email app and when you expand your Hotmail account you’ll see all your folders.
Enjoy!

Oct 06

Remembering Steve Jobs

Dear Steve Jobs,

You were an inspiration to geeks and non-geeks alike, you have forever changed the world of computing and consumer electronics, but beyond that you have inspired design of everyday things in the 21st century.

You will always be remembered.

To honor Steve, inerdtia.com will be wearing black.

Rest in Peace, Steve Jobs, and our most sincere condolences to family, friends and fans.

Oct 05

Parallel experiment in iOS Mobile Development: Flex 4.5 and XCode

I took the plunge and registered for the Apple iOS Developer Program, so that I can start testing my mobile app development on my iPhone 3G S and iPad 2

By no means I consider myself a developer, and so I have 2 machines setup for this new adventure in which I plan to run in parallel.

Option 1: Mac with XCode.

The XCode route is the scariest because the programming language you have to use (Objective-C ) is not for the faint of hearth, even some casual developers and hard-core ones admit that is not an easy one to crack.

Fortunately the abundance of literature and online tutorials should make it easier to get started, so we’ll see how it goes.

My machine and skills may be modest, but my will is strong!

Option 2: Windows 7 PC with Adobe Flash Builder 4.5.1

ActionScript and MXML are a little bit easier to get used to when compared to Objective-C but they are still a new language whatsoever.

The examples on Adobe’s web site and also abundant literature have been really helpful.

 

I will post more as soon as I get approved on the iOS Developer program. My goal is to create a simple application that lets me explore the capabilities of both platforms while maintaining the ease-of-use at an average level for non-hard-core developers.

Oct 03

Where to follow the Apple iPhone event live on October 4th

iPhone 5 Concept (Mac Rumors)

For all those Apple fan boys (and girls) here is a list of web sites that will be providing live coverage of the Apple event on October 4th, 2011 where the new iPhone will be announced:

  1. Phone Reviews (UK) - http://www.phonesreview.co.uk
  2. Mac Rumors (USA) - http://www.macrumors.com
  3. iPhone Freakzhttp://iphonefreakz.com/2011/10/02/live-coverage-apple-event-lets-talk-iphone-october-4th/
  4. iDevice Dailyhttp://idevicedaily.com/full-coverage-iphone-5-event-on-october-4th/
  5. Geek Beat TVhttp://geekbeat.tv/join-us-for-live-coverage-of-apples-iphone-event/
  6. SlashGear Livehttp://live.slashgear.com/
  7. Engadgethttp://www.engadget.com/2011/10/03/engadget-will-be-broadcasting-live-outside-of-apples-lets-tal/
  8. Apple Fan Sitehttp://www.applefansite.com/?p=1358
  9. iPhone Hackshttp://www.iphonehacks.com/2010/07/coverage-of-apple-iphone-4-press-conference.html
  10. Apple (after the event is done) - http://www.apple.com/apple-events/

Sep 27

Gadgetfest 2011: iPhone, Google Ice Cream Sandwich Phone, Amazon Tablet

These 3 are the most anticipated gadgets of the year:

  1. iPhone 5
  2. Google Phone with Ice Scream Sandwich Android OS update
  3. Amazon Tablet
iPhone 5
By now there are plenty of photos circulating around which depict an iPhone with a larger screen, skinnier and still sporting the iconic circular hardware button.
Some questions remain unanswered:
  • But will we see an iPhone 5 on 4G or will there be an iPhone 4S since AT&T hasn’t finished rolling out their LTE (4G) network?
  • Will  iCloud meet the same faith as its predecessor MobileMe, or will it finally conquer the cloud crowd?
  • Will iTunes match servers be ready to take on the (potential) massive uploads?
  • And last but not least, will the iPhone 4S/5 end the era of Unlimited Plans for everybody?
Google Phone running Android Ice Cream Sandwich
As goofy as it may sound, this is a very ambitious project, and one that is most anticipated by the Android followers. The Ice Cream Sandwich OS update’s main objective is to consolidate Android OS versions into the same one for phones and tablets.
As if that wasn’t enough, the recent acquisition of Motorola (mobile unit) by Google makes us speculate about a Google Nexus Prime phone with dual-core processor and unknown bells and whistles.
Amazon Tablet
iPad killer? Check the announcement on 9/28/2011. This tablet will run a customized Android OS optimized by Amazon.
Amazon offers eBooks (through its Kindle brand), movie rentals (watch out Netflix), music, digital downloads for video games and software, and other cloud services.
Will it be a worthy opponent to the Google cloud or the iCloud?
When does this all end?
The madness begins tomorrow with Amazon, and then Apple already announced an iPhone event next week on the 4th. No word from Google yet, but they are expected (or rumored rather) to announce their newest Nexus phone around the same time as the new iPhone.
I can’t hardly wait… I bet you can’t either!

Sep 21

HP TouchPad review: a tablet that won’t make you miss iOS by much

I ordered my TouchPad the day they went on sale and it took almost a month to get on my doorstep.

The packaging is very simple, yet carefully done with plastic wrapping all around and rather fancy compartments for the AC adapter and USB cable, plus the manuals and cleaning cloth.

After unwrapping it, the first time it turned on it took a while and then the setup wizard kicked in asking for a WebOS Id.

The setup was simple, elegant and in many ways very intuitive. 

There are setup wizards for almost every major service you can imagine: Facebook, LinkedIn, Gmail, Yahoo!, Skype, DropBox, etc.

With very few clicks I was up and running and the included documentation made it easier to get started with learning to navigate.

There are no icons on the main screen, but rather a launch dock at the bottom and a quick launch icon to open a big control panel utility with settings, downloads, apps, and favorites.

The home screen has a spotlight like search but rather than being cumbersomely placed away its right there where you need it.

I immediately applied the fix to turn down logging so to improve performance and noticed the difference right away.

The keyboard is way friendlier than any other tablet I have tried (Zoom, iPad, iPad 2, Iconia).

Viewing Flash content on the browser is so cool, I really feel like the touchPad really brings the whole desktop experience to your fingertips.

The HP Apps Catalogue (their app store if you will) has a decent amount of apps to have fun with the device.

It definitively feels heavier, but overall its definitively a keeper!

DAY 2
So performance was still an issue so I applied the kernel patch to overclock its 2 cores to 1.5GHz and a plethora of other improvements like smoother transitions, faster card rendering, turning off logging completely and so and so.

I ran a couple of tests with an iPad 2 on the side and performance was comparable in most cases:

1) Unlocking time. The iPad goes right to business immediately while the TouchPad took a bit longer.

Winner: iPad 2

2) Launching apps. Some apps were faster in one tablet vs the other.

Winner: Tie

3) Closing unused apps. The one-by-one closing mechanism in iOS was defeated by the TouchPad ability to swipe away apps right in the main screen.

Winner: TouchPad

4) Home button responsiveness: About the same in both.

Winner: tie

5) Viewing photos: Since the TouchPad was looking for my Facebook, Local, and photos from other online services, it took considerable longer to launch than the iPad’s photo app which only rendered local photos and not photos in the cloud.

Winner: iPad 2

6) Browsing the web. Speed was the same, the iPad has an advantage in rendering pages, the TouchPad sometimes seems to pixelate images and text. But with the TouchPad’s support for Flash, you will feel sorry when using an iPad and getting the missing plug-in warning.

Winner: TouchPad

7) Video. The TouchPad won’t play Netflix video because that works on Silverlight and there is no app for WebOS so that was a major drawback for me. However, all flash-based sites (i.e. Lynda.com) work just fine without needing a native app.

Using Skype was comparable though accessing your Skype contacts was not exactly what you are used to on the TouchPAd as compared to when a Skype standalone app.

Winner: tie

8) App store. Hands down the iTunes store is king.

Winner: iPad 2

9) Audio. The TouchPad’s speaker system is louder and packs a bit more punch.

Winner: TouchPad

10) Taking photos. The TouchPad only has a front camera and no built-in app to take photos. You can get one for free but is not a great experience.

Winner: iPad 2.

11) Jailbreaking. The TouchPad makes it so much easier and safer to hack with Preware and patches as compared to the iOS risky and cumbersome process involved.

Winner: TouchPad

12) Cables and connections. The HP Touchstone charger is a winner, and the ability to connect the TouchPad via USB and transfer files are big pluses. The TouchPad AC plug is rather bulky and ugly though, but it’s not enough reason to hate them.

Winner: TouchPad

13) Handwriting. One of the features I have missed since the Palm Treo is the lack of Graffitti support on newer Palm OS’. There is a rumor of Evernote coming soon to the TouchPad but in the mean time you’ll ne stuck with typing notes. The iPad on the other hand has Penultimate and other apps that are great for this purpose.

Winner: iPad

14) Stability. I have experienced a few glitches in iOS but they have been rare. In WebOS I see them a little more often.

Winner: iPad

OVERALL
The TouchPad is the first tablet that doesn’t make me miss the iOS user experience by much. It’s definitively sad that WebOS’ future is in dire straits because so much more could have been done.

Since my first PDA ever was a Palm III, it’s hard not to be biased.

So my advice to you is: if you cannot afford an iPad, get one of these while you can. They are worth the money you pay, whatever it lacks from your point of view is survivable.

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