Tag Archives: apps

Blog

Path to No Where

December 14, 2011 – 1:03 pm

Path exploded on the iOS market… around December 2010. It was originally a service to share private photos with 50 of your closest friends. Despite a great user interface it never really caught on. So Path added Facebook sharing which did generate some more noise but again it never caught on.

As of a few weeks ago Path redesigned itself as a life journal. It launched what I consider to be the most beautiful example of design and UX (user experience) to date. The app itself is simply put, gorgeous. So many little details make it fun to tinker with. However no matter how beautiful something may be the market for said functionality doesn’t seem to be there.

I started getting a punch of emails from path a few weeks ago, none of my friends were ever on it but suddenly like an explosion the friend requests started coming in! I thought to myself, wow, this is neat! Lets roll with it. I stayed up to date on my friend’s progress for about 48 hours — and then I forgot all about the beauty of the app and saw it as something I needed to “check”.

72 hours in it all was quiet on the Path app front. No more updates. Everyone had signed up and while there were still friends signing up (due to other friends signing up) no one was using it as Path. It was just another way to spam Twitter/Facebook. Despite the beauty of the app, I uninstalled.

So where is Path now? You have a beautiful app which is amazing but what then? The service of Path is on par with a journal services like Momento or Day One (beautiful journal apps). The problem as well is these items are used as an “on top of” platform. They exist on top of Twitter and Facebook and theoretically just duplicate and complicate already basic function. How?

If I want to post what I’m doing I can just do that with Facebook or Twitter. Launching another app to interact seems to be another step. No? It is sad because I want to use Path — I really do think it is gorgeous! I’m in awe of the app! But I just don’t need it. That is the great tragedy.

Outside tech pundits and gurus, the valley and blogging elite — I just don’t see it. It’s been a week or so now… no more friend requests because I deleted the app. I was reminded yesterday by a tweet from my brother. It said it all.

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Blog

Sparrow for Mac Wins

July 19, 2011 – 8:40 pm

Today the crew over at Sparrow released their long-awaited update. Everything about it is fantastic. I don’t know how many of you are Apple users but if you are head into the App Store and get your hands on either the free or paid version.

Gmail meets Twitter for Mac.

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Blog

WordPress iOS App Fixed

June 15, 2011 – 12:37 pm

Looks like WordPress implemented a fix for their iPhone app quickly. Good thing as it seems this has become my go to app for posting to the web. Props to the WordPress team for getting a fix out so quickly!

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Web

On Twitter for Mac

January 9, 2011 – 7:23 am

The Mac App Store launched as I’m sure everyone knows. Several great apps instantly became available. Within the span of a few minutes the most popular free app was Tweetie 2 Twitter for Mac, and for good reason.

Twitter for Mac is visually fantastic. It has the right amount of Mac flare and the whole vibe is just right. Tweetie was no different, this just improves in so many areas. I have no complaints at all on the look, I think it is flawless. The inclusion of the live user stream is wonderful. No more refreshing and no more “click to load X more tweets”. Also, the ability to use multiple accounts! All fantastic, however I do have some issues.

Twitter for Mac has some feature problems. For starters the exclusive use of t.co URL shortening. I don’t particularly care very much but I have been known to use goo.gl and bit.ly for shortening. Both services have ways to count the number of clicks per URL and t.co does not. This is problematic for many people who are concerned with their web and product stats.

Next and most surprising is the lack of retweet monitoring. My friend Chauncey brought this to my attention and he is exactly right. When I tweet something, if it is retweeted I want to know when and who did it. I can keep track of this on Twitter.com and through other clients like TweetDeck – it is not possible with Twitter for Mac. In my opinion this is a large feature that was overlooked. Let’s hope to see it added soon?

I also don’t know how I feel about the composition and tweet function. You need to either punch in a keyboard shortcut or click a menu and click “New tweet”. This seems counterintuitive for a product and a platform that is based on the speed of “What’s happening?”. If you enable the secret beta features (which I managed to do) you can just start typing while focused on the app and it begins to start composing a new tweet. This should be a launch feature.

Finally, the way the app manages media. On Twitter.com you can view media “in-line” or at least in the side panel. While you can view some pictures from some services in the app (TwitPic, yFrog, etc) there is a very large gap between what is supported in the app and on the website. This should be a constant between all apps if you ask me. This alone turns me off to the app. I don’t want to launch new tabs with every click. This is tab overload and I hate that.

All in all the app is beautiful and the team behind it deserves a round of applause. I hope that some of these concerns are addressed as I am not the only one. In time this app, with the right attention can and will rival the best Twitter experience which is Twitter for iPad. Until then I think I will have to stick to the web experience mixed with my iPhone.

(For those who say use TweetDeck, no thanks. I used TweetDeck from beta all the way to the very last version. Adobe Air/Flash suck.)

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