constructive nonconformist

FaceTime Over 3G via WiFi HotSpot

Back on March 2nd I wrote the following on Twitter:

If no available wifi but #VZW #iPhone4 with personal hotspot and #iPad2 connected to hotspot, will #FaceTime work on the iPad?

In longer words than 140 characters allow, if you find yourself somewhere where there is no available WiFi but you have a Verizon iPhone 4 with Personal HotSpot enabled and you have an iPad 2 connected to the Personal HotSpot, then, even though you can't use FaceTime on the iPhone, will FaceTime work on the iPad?

The answer is yes.

Hotspot Tethering Allows FaceTime Calls Over 3G

Review: "HTML 4 & 5: The Complete Reference" By O'Reilly Media for iOS

This is not a book stuffed into an app. It is an application. The second thing to know is that the content is very good.

The content is a refresh of the O’Reilly HTML & XHTML Pocket Reference, Fourth Edition and benefits from have been honed over multiple editions. As a pocket reference it shows a decision to opt for concision over being exhaustively deep. But it is good because it is on point.

The content can be browsed or searched. Browsing includes a list of elements and a list of attributes. From the attribute list attribute entries link back to element entries for the elements that use the given attribute.

The search feature works across both elements and attributes but apparently there’s no word stemming. Searching on ‘sel’ finds no results. ‘select’ finds results that include the select element but not the selected attribute.

The app was developed in HTML5, CSS3, and jQTouch. PhoneGap was used to create an iOS executable. There are plans to bring the app to Android so using PhoneGap probably seemed reasonable. But there are quirks present that probably result from not being directly developed to iOS. Overall I didn’t see performance issues on a first gen iPad and on an iPhone4 but scrolling and scrubbing in the elements and attributes lists was sometimes touchy. What seemed like a light flick would sometimes send the list flying to the end. Touching the scrub bar is not always recognized, so instead of scrubbing through alphabetically the list is only scrolling. There’s no visual cue when the scrub bar has been activated.

Despite a few deficiencies it’s a huge win in convenience and utility to have this content in the form of an application. I’ve been working on updating an older site and this application has proved its worth as what it claims to be: a complete reference.

HTML 4 & 5: The Complete Reference is on the iTunes App Store.

Thanks to O’Reilly for providing the application for review.

Daring Fireball Linked List: 'You Already Know How to Use It'

Daring Fireball: ‘You Already Know How to Use It’

Regarding the Newton/iPad connection, I can imagine Steve Jobs telling John Sculley “Let me show how this is done right.”

Trial Phone Apps

From the department of ‘Oh, I want that in the Apple App Store’:

For Windows Phone 7 applications, the Microsoft Windows Phone Marketplace will support trial versions.

The Windows Phone Marketplace: A different shopping experience for a different kind of phone - Windows Phone Developer Blog - The Windows Blog:

“Marketplace now adds a new Trial API that gives every application or game developer the option, but not the requirement, to enable a single instance of their code to include trial usage limitations (like time or level) so that users can test drive the app/game they are considering.”

Update:

Clearly I’ve not been paying attention: Apple opens door to iPhone ‘freemium’ apps - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

links for 2010-03-10

• Books in the Age of the iPad — Craig Mod

  (tags: apple books ipad)

• 6 reasons why the iPad could be the 'Star Wars' of tablet computing :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Andy Ihnatko

  On a scale of momentousness the iPad feels like a much bigger deal to me than the iPhone did.

  (tags: apple ipad)

• Cameron Daigle Dot Com | PodCamp Nashville 2010 Presentation

  I am so stealing the punchline.

  (tags: apple development ipad)

The iPad and Tinkering

There’s an idea going around that the iPad is the “tinkerer’s sunset.”

Alex Payne — On the iPad
Tinkerer’s Sunset [dive into mark]
iSingularity? (take 2) // plasmasturm.org

I think there’s some interesting issues these guys are trying to work through but the basic argument and anger as directed at the iPad is largely based on THINGS WE DON’T YET KNOW. It’s early days. The iPad could easily turn out to be more friendly to ‘tinkering’ than the iPhone.

In my own speculation I’m closer to Stefan Tilkov’s take.

iPad Thoughts - Stefan Tilkov’s Random Stuff

I think there might be an opportunity to be the Beagle Bros. of the iPad.

The Tablet

Minimal Mac rounds up speculation on Apple’s Tablet.

My speculative fantasy of the Apple tablet includes the following notable items:

• Like the iPhone there will be only a virtual keyboard. The tablet will not be designed to support touch typing. Touch typing was important on a typewriter but on the tablet, as with handwriting on a piece of paper, your eyes will be focused in the general area where your fingers are working.


• The tablet’s networking support will include wifi and bluetooth but not cellular. There will be no contract required with another company. But the speculative iPhone nano may be a cheap tethering device for the tablet.

I can’t be wrong until Apple ships something.

Update: John Siracusa on the tablet — Antacid tablet

Post Announcement Update: I was wrong. I was wrong about a virtual keyboard only and I was wrong about no cellular.