The Weekly Review

Long time mail users are most likely aware of all the great features of Mail.app, which is included with the operating system. But I still find new small touches that impress me.

Today’s great moment by design is focused on one of those. Specifically, the data detectors in Mail that recognize an address and attach a link to Google Maps. Simply click on the drop down arrow that appears when you hover the mouse over an address in Mail, and you can select the option, “Show map.”

This feature also gives you options with dates and names, allowing you to add contacts to Address Book or events to iCal. All from within Mail.app. I like the feature and find it an example of good design.

There are some folks who are annoyed by this though. In that case, these data detectors can be turned off.

Although I’ve set up and am content with my log file to track certain information, I received an invite to the private beta for Daytum. I took a few moments to check out this service.

In the world of web apps, this one is quite simple. It allows you to create two types of content: Counters and Statements. Counters are just that and statements are similar to a status update like Backpack offers. There are some good examples of how people are using the service on the front page of the site.

It could be a useful service, but there is one issue I’m not keen on. Everything you post here is publicly viewable. Here’s a shot from the front page:

I could not find an option to keep your items private. Unless you are interested in letting everyone know how many cups of water/coffee you drink each day, this might stop some people from using the service.

Came across this link on LifeHacker yesterday. An interesting theme for GMail and GCal, Google Redesigned offers a refreshing new look for those who find Google’s interfaces too utilitarian.

For Firefox only, the theme runs on it’s own extension, rather than using Stylish or Greasemonkey.

One of the new features I appreciated most about Leopard was Quick Look. An easily accessible tool that allows you to preview files without having to open specific applications—what’s not to like?

Here the description from Apple:

Quick Look works with nearly every file on your system, including images, text files, PDF documents, movies, Keynote presentations, Mail attachments, and Microsoft Word and Excel files. Just tap the Space bar to see a file in Quick Look, or click the Quick Look icon in the Finder window.

But there’s a key item missing from the list above. Folders. How does Quick Look display folders?

It basically shows a larger version of the folder icon. Here’s a sample:

Not all that helpful. You can use the arrow keys to navigate through the folder structure, but wouldn’t be easier if you could view the contents of each folder first?

And that’s where today’s Great Moment by Design comes in. Some time in the past I came across a link to a Quick Look Folder plugin, available here. Here’s how Quick Look handles a folder after this plugin is installed (requires a Finder relaunch):

Not only does it give a visual preview of the contents of a folder, but you can navigate through your folder structure while leaving Quick Look open. It’s a handier way to see the contents of your computer without slowing you down.

In a rambling browsing session last night, I came across an interesting RSS tool. While not conducive to productivity (read: install at your own risk), Snackr is a great looking way to read your news.

Scrolling across your screen in a HUD-style interface, the latest news items in your feed reader are displayed:

The more recent builds of this app include integration with Google Reader. This is a nice touch—I’ve been using Google Reader a lot more since returning to work. It’s available on my Windows machine and works nicely on the iPod Touch. Snackr fits in nicely—changes made in the application are synced across to your Google Reader account and vice versa.

One last thing to mention—Snackr is built on the Adobe Air platform so you must install the Air package before you can use this app. For me, that means it available for Windows as well. I can now have the exact same RSS setup on my Macbook and Windows PC.

And fear not productivity gurus—the app can be minimized and out of sight so as not to distract you.

The Twitter issues continue. Only now, instead of being down, the service decides who should follow who … it’s social networking –2.0.

All kidding aside, I love Twitter. The performance has been so improved lately, I had hoped that whatever infrastructure adjustments were made had fixed all their issues. Hopefully this new bug gets resolved fast—I think losing relationships will bother people more than just being down.

The past few weeks have been great for finding some cool tools for implementing a paper-based GTD setup. The list of Moleskine resources I mentioned recently was a great start. And yesterday, Natalie Jost included some great links on an interesting article for A List Apart. One of these was a link to the blog of David Seah.

On his blog, David has a feature entitled “The Printable CEO Series”. These are free, downloadable PDF files that you can print off and use for your own productivity. For anyone who has played a bit with creating a DIY GTD planner, you know there are a lot of free resources out there. You also know that a lot of those free resources are less than stellar. David’s are different—these look nice. Take a look at a few samples here:

Not only does he give these away for free, but he goes into some detail on how they are intended to be used. David also includes links to reader submitted modifications or how to incorporate his tools into other GTD setups. All in all, a wonderful resource.

Take a look for yourself and see the quality of David’s work. If you want to use a paper GTD system, these are some of the best resources I’ve seen. And if you are inclined to give something back to the guy making these available for free, here’s a link where you can leave a tip.

After too many long days hitting refresh on me.com and clicking the Check for Updates button in iTunes last week, I felt the need to focus on things non-digital for the weekend. Enter the Ekorre Hanging Seat.

When I made a trip to Seattle last month, I took a stop at the Ikea store in Richmond. I picked up a few things for the kids, one of which is this hanging seat. This is such a well designed product, I thought I would give it a mention as a Great Moment by Design.

When your child is going to be sitting—and let’s be realistic, sitting really means swinging madly—in a device hanging from the ceiling, you want a product you can trust. The Ekorre is durable. It looks like something you might use to climb a mountain. The nylon rope is thick and the clasps used to secure the rope to the ceiling are vaguely like those which climbers use. Even the material of the seat itself is great—a mixture seemingly of cloth and canvas that gives you a feeling of sturdiness.

I have no worries when the kids are playing on here—no matter how hard they might be pushing one another. And the level of enjoyment they get from this toy shows that it really is a great design.

Just in time for the arrival of iPhone 2.0 on Friday, it feels right to talk a bit about my first week and half with my iPod Touch. I know I’m late to the party, what with the iPhone being around for almost a year, but we Canadians haven’t had as much exposure to this device as our cousins to the south. So with my fellow countrymen in mind, here’s what I’ve found. This is not a full on review—just a collection of experiences that really stuck out. Great moments in design if you will.

Form Factor

First off, this is a beautiful device. Like all the other Apple hardware I own, the materials and construction are top notch. Best of all, the size is acceptable. The screen is a decent size, but the overall dimensions of the unit are small enough that it’s not a burden to take everywhere you go. I’m the kind of person who can’t stand bulky items in my pockets—I’ll tend to keep my keys and wallets in my backpack instead. But the iPhone\Touch casing is compact enough that I found I always had it with me.

Display

Another well designed and good looking aspect of the Touch is the display. It’s crisp. Like over-cooked bacon crisp. The sharpness of the UI is better than my 23″ ACD—and any other LCD I’ve ever used for that matter—due of course to the increased PPI (pixel density). It’s a pleasure to look at the screen at any time, in any of the apps—except for maybe the notes, due to the poor choice of font. But I digress.

There were times in the past week where I would catch myself just staring at the screen, lost to what I had been doing previously. I would press the home button just so I could see all the buttons for the various apps. Just because it looks good.

In the past decade that I’ve paid attention to Apple, their hardware has always struck me as good looking—and the iPhone\Touch takes it up another level.

Browsing

Since the launch of the iPhone, a lot of talk has centered around Mobile Safari. And for good reason. I’ve never been a big user of cell phones or PDA’s, so my experience here is limited. I’ve used and supported a few; the older Palm models, Compaq iPaqs and BlackBerrys mostly. But surfing the web was not a primary function—at least not intentionally. A lot of that was due to the fact that it was a pain to surf with those devices, even the BlackBerrys.

Mobile Safari appears to have changed that. Now, not all sites are really great to view on the device. It’s certainly not the same as surfing on my computer. But there were enough times where it was easier to look something up on the Touch rather than go the office to grab the laptop. And when out and about and there’s wifi available—gold.

As far as viewing sites goes, I think the Mobile Safari designers did a great job making the app improve the experience as much as possible when browsing pages that are not optimized for the device. Take this site for example—the double tap (I keep wanting to say double click) method for zooming in and out is great for sites like The Weekly Review that are broken into two or three columns.

Add to this the fact that many designers are in fact optimizing for the iPhone and you’ve got an overall pleasant web experience. Not perfect—you will be annoyed at times—but pleasant enough for such a small screen.

Sound Quality

Of course, sound is important too. This is after all, an iPod. And again, my experience here is limited. This is only my second iPod, the former being a first generation Nano. I find the quality of sound is an improvement over the Nano—the bass is definitely fuller and the overall range more complete. I’m no audiophile, so I’m not exactly sure why there would be an improvement. Perhaps it the size, bigger battery or maybe the newer ear buds. Whatever the reason, it was a pleasant surprise.

Wifi

There’s not a lot to mention here other than the ease of use. Connect to a particular SSID once, and never have to bother again. Once I had a few main networks set up, I was never bothered with having to choose a network at any time. The device was simply connected whenever I turned it on.

Apps

The original apps included are a good start. As mentioned above, Mobile Safari is well designed. The Calendar and Mail apps are also well designed. Stocks, Weather, Clock and Calculator are really more widgets than apps. The exciting aspect for me here will be with the software update coming Friday. The push aspect to all devices with MobileMe will tie these apps together with the already polished desktop experience that is OS X.

Another thing worth mentioning is the excellent implementation of accessing your media. Using Music, video and photos is fun—I showed off more pictures of the kids this week at work than I have for the past five years. And that brings us to the next section.

Interface

After 9 days, there is no doubt to me that what Apple really nailed here is the interface. With OS X where it is today, this should be no surprise. But the way in which the developers incorporated the touch technology into the Touch OS is stunning. This hit me so many times—flicking through photos, browsing through artists or contacts, reading emails—when you start to pay attention to the small details, it’s boggling. My personal favorite is setting the date and time for a new calendar entry—I don’t know how else to describe it than fun. iCal isn’t this good.

Like OS X, the interface is so good because of one factor—ease of use. And that’s where the iPhone line beats out the competition. Sure, typing on a small device is hard—a person can argue whether Apple’s design in this regard is better than others. But for the rest of the functionality, no one other PDA or smart phone comes close.

I’m definitely impressed with the Touch. Probably more than I had expected, which might explain why I hadn’t made this purchase earlier. If you are not yet the owner of an iPhone or iPod Touch, eagerly anticipating Friday morning, you won’t be disappointed. In fact, you might want to get in line now.

I love reading stories of designers and developers that give you, the reader, insight into how they think and work. In a humorous piece yesterday, Wil Shipley shares his experiences with solving a large bug with his flagship application, Delicious Library 2. Aside from his out of nowhere Interlude, here’s my favorite line from the post:

I knew this. Knew! I’ve also been around long enough to know that whenever I know the operating system must be bugged, since my code is correct, I should take a damn close look at my code. The old adage (not mine) is that 99% of the time operating system bugs are actually bugs in your program, and the other 1% of the time they are still bugs in your program, so look harder, dammit.

Great stuff.