KeithAhern.com

Follow me on twitter @pubzak

I will still write blog articles but some of you may not know that I have a twitter presence as @pubzak - I tweet a lot more often than I blog!

iPhone predictions for 2009

I wrote a blog post on iPhone predictions for 2009 over on the MoGeneration.com site.  Please add your own!

Moo Shake! - MoGeneration releases first kids game for iPhone

MoGeneration (my company) are well known for creating great iPhone apps and web apps for other companies such as News Corp, Xumii and Lingpal but some people may not know that we also create our own apps.  Today Moo Shake! was released world wide on the apple app store.  Its a very simple kids game suitable for ages 3 and up.  Kids love it, they get it right away, thanks to a little animation at the start that shows how you use it.

If you have or know a kid aged 3 to 103 and they have access to an iPhone or iPod Touch then become their favourite person by buying or gifting the game today! (just in time for xmas!)

More info including a link to the app at shakeandplay.com

What’s the best cable connector ever?

I took my macbook out of my bag, put it on the table and moved an innocuous cable to the back left side where it jumped conveniently into place - I leaned back and thought to myself - the magsafe cable is the BEST CABLE CONNECTOR ever! why?

• its symmetric - there is no ‘top’ side like USB which drives me nuts, I always plug USB cables in wrong.
• it snaps into place with a magnet - its like parking assist for cables, a concierge who straightens your collar before leaving the lobby.
• it lights up - green when charged, amber when charging - no light when disconnected.
• it works across all macs - there are different watt ratings but they all just seem to work without causing a fuss.

Therefore, in my humble opinion, and despite not having a theme song like RS-232 (youtube links sadly pulled).

Magsafe I SALUTE you.

What’s your favourite cable connector?

Australian politicians defenestrate Windows Mobile and demand Blackberrys

http://ShowMore.Info/Sbu

Interesting article on who will win the race of the mobile runtime

UPDATE Andreas from VisionMobile has provided some feedback in the comments.

VisionMobile has a good article on the race to be the winning mobile runtime for applications e.g. java J2ME, flashlite, webKit, silverlight, lua, python and QT.  I do question some of the numbers used in the addressable market e.g. 500M for flashlite versus 800M for javaME. To this day I have never seen flashlite on a mobile but I can’t remember the last moderately capable mobile without java - I am talking most about the Australian and European markets here - it may be more prevalent in the US or Asia.  Adobe screwed up big time by charging a license for flashlite, they’ve since abandoned this fee but I think it may be too little too late.

WebKit is becoming a formidable platform by itself.  Its HTML5 client side storage will lead to a whole new generation of offline capable web apps (google gears without the spyware).  In future standardised javascript access to device capabilities (camera, address book, GPS) means that the only reason not to use web standards to develop mobile apps is if you really need 3D - in which case OpenGL is still the best bet - until VRML comes back:-)

QR Code statistics from Powerhouse Museum

Summary less than 1 in 5 conversion rate but several mistakes were made in implementation.

Sydney Design QR code wrap up - so did anyone use it?

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2008/10/16/sydney-design-qr-code-wrap-up-so-did-anyone-use-it/

Seb has posted an update

http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2008/10/23/some-qr-code-clarifications/

Urbanspoon iPhone app now works in Sydney, Melbourne

Urbanspoon provides restaurant reviews with a twist, or shake. Latest version has local content for Sydney and Melbourne, the ability to submit photos, location aware, unique interface - it rocks.

Keith’s Mobile Goodness score 9/10

Get it from the app store

Android Market to allow carriers to veto apps

According to the GSMA Mobile briefing today, carriers can veto apps in the Android Market. 

“T-Mobile said it would retain the power to veto any applications submitted to the Android developer store - known currently as ‘Android Market’ - in a similar manner to Apple’s policy on its rival App Store.”

Wow, that’s big if its true.  Carriers are fiercely defensive, more so than Apple.  If carriers can veto VOIP apps and music stores other than their own then the Android market is no better than the Apple App Store and could be a lot worse.

Please say it isn’t so.

‘Send to phone’ from Google Maps now in Australia

I have no idea when this started working in Australia - for the longest time it was only in the US.  

NOTE SAFARI USERS you need to do this from a google.com.au map NOT a google.com map.  Safari, at least for me, uses google.com when you use the Google search box.

If you do a google maps search, such as the one I did for the location of tonights curiously named ‘Swedish Beers’ mobile industry event and you pick the ’send’ option

Then choose the phone option and enter an Australian number, no need for the +61 prefix.

And the you get a SMS message like this:

Its nice to still get free SMS messages as some companies such as Twitter are going in the other direction.

The URL is for mobile but the iPhone is smart enough to intercept it and route it to the native app: