Stimulating Pixels

If you are a fan of the SEC and own an iPhone or an iPod Touch, you’ll want the free “SEC Football Pocket Schedule” from SilverTree Technology. (They also have a Big 12 one if you’re into that.)

Interestingly, once I move off that page on their site, I can’t see any other links back to it. Whatever the case, the App itself works as a great add for the company. I never would have seen their site if I hadn’t started with the app. The app itself is pretty simple, but it’s really well designed, loads fast and is intuitive. So, not only is it a free ad for them, it lets potential clients know that they do good work.

The Wordpess iPhone app is a pretty solid little piece of software. (I’m writing this very post with it.) There are a few key upgrades that would make it even more useful.

1) the ability to define the maximum photo size when uploading from in the app.

2) The ability to override the keyboard auto-rotation and select either a full time horizontal or vertical layout.

3) Spellcheck.

According to the app’s “about page” it is an open source app. Guess I’ll take a look and see if I can put in the changes myself.

I’ve only used it a little, but Amazon’s Kindle iPhone app is a much better reading experience than I thought it would be. I’ll let you know if I have the same feeling after reading an entire book, but after a few sessions, I’m pleasantly surprised with how little I consciously think about the fact that there are only a few sentences on the screen at one time and how often I have to flip pages.

One of the best User Interface elements of it is the little lock that pops up for a moment when you trun the device from vertical to horizontal or vice versa. Tapping the lock keeps tells the app to keep the display in that perspective. Without this it would be difficult to read lying down because the app would have a tendency to flip to a vertical display when turn to the side.

One key improvent I’d like to see is a dictionary lookup. In the current version, you can’t even copy a word to paste into another app. Makes a real pain when you come across a tricky word that you are unsure of.

You’ll need an Amazon account (and an iPhone or iPod Touch, of course) but the app is worth checking out. There are some titles that are offered for free. So, you can get a feel for the experince with something like Dracula without having to pay a dime.

I’ve got three ideas for iPhone Apps that I’d like to try. Up until a few weeks ago, no one had done any of them. Then I discovered the “CardStar” App which is right in line with one of them.

CardStar lets you punch in the numbers under the bar codes from various membership, V.I.P. and reward cards and then recreates the bar codes themselves on the screen. The idea being that you can store as many as you want in your iPhone/iPod Touch and leave the actual cards at home.

With all the other stuff I carry around, anything that can keep me from having to take something else along is great. So, the idea of CardStar is awesome. I’ve only been using it for a little while and have run into a few issues.

First off, some scanners have a hard time with reading the barcode on the screen and some simply can’t do it. This isn’t CardStar’s fault. Just an issue between the way the two technologies work.

CardStar’s FAQ recommends having the merchant use their handheld scanners instead of the flatbed ones. I’ve seen this in action at my local Winn-Dixie. The flatbed didn’t work at all, but the handheld was able to pick up the bar code. Sadly, some handhelds don’t seem to be able to pick up the bar codes either.

A second issue I’ve run into is that some places won’t let you use anything other than the original card. I’m guessing most grocery, drug and retail stores don’t care, but my local library does. Once again, not CardStar’s fault. Just the way things work.

There are some changes I’d make to the User Interface of CardStar to make it more intuitive, but all it all, it’s a good little app. For the time being, it’s also free. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, go pick it up and give it a try.