Seth's Inbox Culture

Do you spend your day responding and reacting to incoming all day... until the list is empty? ... and then you're done. - Seth Godin

iPhone 2.01 Update Available

Drop.io Twitter Integration

iPhone 3G Availability

Disappointed iPhone Owners Abound

ScribeFire / Testing / Testing

ScribeFire, an extension of FireFox, enables users to easily drag and drop formatted text from the Web into their blog(s), post entries, take notes, and optimize their ad inventory, directly through the Firefox browser.

Google DOCS / Google DOCS "Share this document" feature busted in Firefox 3.0

I was trying to share a Google DOC with two co-workers this morning and ran into this problem again in FireFox 3.0. Notice the strangely absent text box for your invites below Invite people? I had to load docs.google.com up in IE to share the DOC. Annoying - not the 1st time I've seen this problem. Pretty sure I experienced it in in FireFox 2.x for a while as well. Come on people.

iPhone 2.0 / emailing a geotagged picture to Flickr

Emailing a geotagged picture to Flickr doesn't work.

I've been trying to send geotagged pictures to my Flickr account via email. Guess what. iPhone 2.0 strips the EXIF data (that's where the geo tag is) out of the picture before it emails it. Dumb. Why? Security? iPhone users are way past the security issue. Flickr users are talking about it here. I hope Apple fixes this soon.

Update: lockergnome pointed me towards AirMe (available on Apple's AppStore) for geotagged uploads to Flickr.

iPhone 2.0 update - Tardy Developer

One of the guys on my team was late coming in this morning. Why? The iPhone 2.0 update didn't restore his recurring alarms. Damn, you Jobs. Were you late today because of your iPhone 2.0? Maybe I'm just a sucker ; )
--------------------------------------------

UPDATE:

Turns out the iPhone 2.0 upgrade did not copy over my recurring alarm
clock. Damn you, Jobs.

On Jul 14, 2008, at 10:00 AM, Alex Boone wrote:

> Hey guys-
>
> I feel really stupid but I overslept my alarm this morning (by a
> long shot). I'll be in the office ASAP.

iPhone 2.0 update = FRUSTRATION

Friday, July 11th, I loved Apple and hated Apple. I hated Apple because the iPhone 2.0 update bricked my iPhone for a good part of the morning. Restarting iTunes over and over again, hoping for a connection to the Apple update server, isn't my idea of a good time. I loved Apple for the App Store and adding Microsoft Exchange support to the iPhone.

By the end of the day, I was impressed, and felt good about the update. I was still an Apple fan.

After having spent the weekend with the update I'm frustrated. Battery life is a problem for me now and it wasn't before and for some reason the phone likes to shut down completely when I leave it alone for too long. Most likely, some of these problems can be attributed to one, or more,  of the 3rd party applications I downloaded from the App Store. But shouldn't Apple do a better job of protecting the core of the phone from poorly written App Store applications? After all, they do a pretty job of protecting the core of the U.I. from poorly written applications.

iPhone 2.0 might have more bling but iPhone 1.0 was a better phone. iPhone 2.0 will get better with time but I won't be too surprised if some people want their iPhone 1.0 back. Did Apple add too much bling to iPhone 2.0? Apple, remember this, in the end - it's a phone. Still an Apple fan.

1st Apple AppStore Purchase

I just purchased my 1st iPhone app through the Apple App Store. What did I buy? Joe Kueser's Fuel Gauge (iTunes link) for .99 cents. Fuel Gauge is currently #9 on the App Store Top 25 list. I'm going to use it to see just how much gas my 84 Toyota Land Cruiser is sucking down.

The purchase process was amazingly easy. I think the App Store and more importantly the iPhone apps are going to fuel some major growth in Apple's share of this market. Contrasting this experience with my experience installing apps on Microsoft-based SmartPhones - no comparisson.

IMO, developers are going to flock to this platform because it does so much to provide the commerce infrastructure and it doesn't take a whole lot (because Apple provides so much in terms of U.I. guidance and coding tools) to write something that's pretty handy for the iPhone.

WOW - I'm really impressed with the 2.0 upgrade so far. I'm also really like the addition of Microsoft Exchange Support - it's interfacing with our Zimbra server perfectly.

iPhone 2.0 update = Error

Accessing iTunes Store........
Accessing iTunes Store........
Accessing iTunes Store........
Accessing iTunes Store........

Error

Early this morning, I anxiously slipped my battle hardened 1st GEN iPhone into the warm embrace of its' docking craddle this morning to receive the update we've both been anticipating for so long. Nearly shaking, I clicked the button to check for an update in iTunes hoping that the coveted update would be available to my anxiously waiting iPhone. It is! Hooray! I clicked the appropriate buttons to start the update process and sat back to check email and sip my steaming coffee. It's going to be a good day. The stock market might be coming apart on bad news from the mortgage companies and increasing oil prices but the iPhone 2.0 update is here so it's all good.

Error We could not complete you iTunes Store request. An unknown error occurred (-4)
There was an error in the iTunes Store. Please try again later.

Crap, maybe the world really is coming unglued. Now I'm stuck without a phone and I feel like my trusted iPhone doesn't know who I am anymore. Will it wake up and remember me? Come back friend. My coffee is cold now and it's NOT all good here.

I'm not the only one - there are others.

UPDATE 07/11 9:47AM P TIME: Getting some traction with the iTunes store. Restoring and activating now - looks like my phone an I are going to be OK.

UPDATE 07/11 10:11AM P TIME: Still having problems with iTunes and connecting to the iTunes Store but my phone managed to Activate and Restore.

3G iPhone?

Pogue, Mossberg, and Baig 3G iPhone reviews appear. Shiver me timbers. What's the verdict? Good summary of their reactions over on CNET's Crave blog. Personally, I think I'm going to see if the software upgrade for my 1st generation iPhone can meet my needs before I consider the upgrade. Also, I'm kind of interested in finding out how long my 1st generation iPhone can take the abuse before it fails.

What are you going to do?

Well done Netflix

Tag Galaxy - a new way to search Flickr

Puppet Interviews - Dove Deeper

Puppet Interviews

Yahoo! IM for MAC

TransferBigFiles

Obama Ads

Drop.io

Drop.io enables you to create simple private exchange points called "drops."

Searching Gmail

Lists of Twittering journalists - good people to Follow

Viewzi

My money is on Craigslist

firefly demo on scripting.com

New Google Reader for iPhone

R2-D2 Projector / Awsome

PC World Reviews Email Center Pro

Applause: Blaine Cook

I'm clapping for Blaine Cook, x lead architect for Twitter, and I'd like to thank Blaine for all the hard work he put into making Twitter what it is today. Twitter may be experiencing some growing pains but I think Blaine is catching more flack for the problems this week than he deserves. Throw out a Tweet for Blain and thank him for all of his hard work - attach the hash tag #thankyoublainecook. Blain's website - includes phone number and email address if you're looking for his contact info.

Related: Silicon Alley Insider: Lead Architect Blaine Cook Out at Twitter

Charlie Rose Interviews Charlie Rose About Technology

Creating Infectious Engagement

The Stanford d.school is hosting a free mini-conference on Creating Infectious Engagement May 6th from 3:30 to 6. The event is open to the public and it is a great opportunity to connect with smart people and benefit from everything the Creating Infectious Engagement team is working on. I will be attending the Stanford Managing Teams for Innovation and Success Executive Education program June 1 - 6.

Our Stanford d.school class on Creating Infectious Engagement is holding a conference next Thursday May 1st from 3:30 to 6:00 that is open to the public.  We have some great speakers lined-up who will talk about what it takes to spread good ideas. Please RSVP to Joe Mellin at ciersvp@gmail.com if you will be joining us, as we need to plan for food.  The conference is in the new d.school space in building 524 in the learning theatre. A big thanks to Joe for designing this wonderful poster.  Please send it along to your friends!

NOTE for the Creating Infections Engagement class: I discovered this event in Guy Kawasaki's Twitter stream.  Lot's of streams (Twitter, Flickr, Blogs) feeding the rivers (FriendFeed, Facebook, TechMeme) which feed the ocean (national media) these days. Interesting stuff.

Email Center Pro Launch Week

In March, I blogged about a new product we're working on at Palo Alto Software called Email Center Pro.

I’m happy to announce that we’re officially launching Email Center Pro (ECP) this week. You can read more about the launch in my recent post on the Dead Simple Software blog. Or here, and here, and here.

If you missed the chance to grab a beta account, don’t freak out, you can still kick the tires by signing up for a FREE account. We're all very excited about this launch - so come on over and check it out.

Internet Tubes Plugged by 2010 Says AT&T

U.S. telecommunications giant AT&T has claimed that, without investment, the Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010.

c|net AT&T: Internet to hit full capacity by 2010

image from: Google Blogscoped

Soocial Hassle Free

South Park Internet Stars Massacre

iPhone - Wallpaper

I spent some time over the weekend personalizing my new iPhone - new wallpaper was 1st on my shopping list. Here's what I picked up.

Flickr iPhone Wallpaper Group: Almost 10,000 iPhone ready wallpaper images - I'm sporting Ininja on my walls.

Iconfactory : Freeware : Desktop: A great collection of illustrated iPhone ready wallpaper images - click the iPhone icon to download.

Getting the wallpaper up on the walls of my new iPhone took no time at all. Syncing photos to an iPod or iPhone is easy. 

iPhone - Got one