Been playing with WebSockets recently, here’s one demo I’ve built that pushes iOS gestures over a socket to an EventMachine (ruby) script that pushes it down to a standard html webpage running the Google Maps JS API. You can check out the demo here on YouTube.

The source is available on Github.

Here’s an application for your jailbroken iPhone that replaces the very attractive and functional with an out of place Metro UI home screen from Windows Phone 7. If you don’t appreciate your iPhone, like putting ugly themes on iOS or just really want to be a Windows Phone 7 user; then this is the app for you.

It’s pretty cool that this developer has managed to build a pretty solid clone of Metro UI but it’s even more upsetting that everyone on the internet thinks this looks good.

But, the biggest insult? Giving Safari the icon from some god awful hack job internet browser.

source.

There are some rare gems in the Application Interfaces section on deviantART. This is one of them, it’s a mockup of a iOS lockscreen with some inspiration from WP7. Ignore the fact it looks a bit like WP7 but look at the general idea of a simplified calendar and a simplified messaging area; it’s something I’ve been wanting on my iPhone for years.

It doesn’t try to be too fancy, too informative or too clunky; all it does is bring a clean snapshot into your day. Something Microsoft strived to deliver for years with the Today screen on Windows Mobile.

One of the more exciting parts of the iPhone and iPad family is the well designed and useful accessories that are built specifically for that. I don’t see that excitement in Android or WP7. Is the extensibility and popularity of iPad/iPhone/iPhone accessories a factor?

Android and WP7 diversity in terms of hardware is also its weakness, manufacturers need to invest a lot to build accessories for a broad range of devices. In the end they’ll just pick the most popular such as a HTC Desire or Xpera. Something like an iPhone is great to build for as you know your product is at least valid for a year.

So here’s what IDC is predicting the smartphone market will look like in 2015.

Basically IDC is assuming

• Windows Phone will just take the place of Symbian because of the Nokia deal. Assuming that the Nokia brand is so strong that it demands loyalty and Nokia will continue being one of the very few players that can manufacture cheap smartphones that people will flock too.
• That assumes Nokia is the only one capable of getting processor intensive Windows Phone to run on dirt cheap hardware.
• BlackBerry who seems to be pretty much dead in terms mindshare amongst consumers in 2011, either is able to keep on limping long enough to have some market share in 2015 or has some ace up its sleave that IDC knows about.
• iOS will somehow slip more places that BlackBerry

I think the only thing they got right is that Android will be the dominate player, purely by saturating the makret and nothing else.

If I was a company using IDC for business intelligence, I’d start looking elsewhere.

IDC Press Release

Just because Apple created the in-out homescreen experience doesn't make it right & it doesn't need to be something apps adopt. But alas, apps feel that users would love it they jumped from homescreen to another just to execute the task the app is meant to truly deliver.

Never mind the wild concept of the app instantly delivering what the user wants to achieve, let's them leave to choice from 5 different options before they can actually achieve something.

Like this shopping centre app, I imagine the idea of a shopping centre app when you launch is when you need to find a certain shop. Maybe right away show a directory or a map showing where you are in the centre with an obvious search bar to quickly pinpoint your destination?

Let's be honest, how many people who go to a shopping centre care about sharing it with their friends or reading some news about a shopping centre? If you're going to try and build an experience around your shopping centre don't palm it off to a section of your app; from the moment you start the app have it all connected. You open the app with a map of the place, a convenient search bar to quickly locate places and place pins on the directory map showing where cool sales are on offer.

And don't create a homescreen if you haven't go enough icons to fill it, making it look like it's my job to somehow fill the homescreen with your pseudo apps. I was really disappointed by the switch in design by Urbanspoon to the homescreen design. You use Urbanspoon to find cool places to eat at when you're stuck or in need for something to eat; so that's what it should open with. Open with the Shake to find feature and then use the tab bar at the bottom to offer other features like search and nearby. Urbanspoon bills itself as being able to help you find places to eat it; so it's not really helping when the user has to make a decision on what do in the app before it can help you.