Hocus Pocus Locus

NameChk for iOS Launches!

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:27:00 -0800

Hey folks, I’ve been working on an iOS version of namechk.com for a while and it’s just gone live on the app store! Check it out and if you like it please leave a review! If you don’t like it, send me a message and I’ll get to fixing it ;)

Anyway, enjoy!

Available for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.

Direct link to App Store

The Lions Mane Jellyfish is the largest jellyfish in the world....

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 17:58:00 -0800

The Lions Mane Jellyfish is the largest jellyfish in the world. They have been swimming in arctic waters since before the dinosaurs (over 650 million years ago) and are among some of the oldest surviving species in the world.

The largest can come in at about 6 meters and has tentacles over 50 meters long. Pretty amazing when you think these things have been swimming around for so long.

They have hundreds of poisonous tentacles that it used to catch passing by fish. it then slowly drags in it’s prey and eats it.

That is terrifying.

nickdouglas: peterfeld: I hope they let him into the...

Sat, 26 Nov 2011 12:06:58 -0800

nickdouglas:

peterfeld:

I hope they let him into the debates.

Problem, Cole?

The wrong part of the brain

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:12:45 -0700

The wrong part of the brain:

There’s some interesting conversation going on about the value of skeuomorphic UI textures used in Apple-designed user interfaces. John Gruber thinks that some people are “over thinking this” and that the textures are “not designed to help users understand how these apps work. They’re just decoration.”

I agree with John in that I don’t think these designs directly help the user learn how to use the app. However, I think that they have more value than “just decoration”.

Here’s a great quote from Steve Jobs from his biography:

I began to realize that an intuitive understanding and consciousness was more significant than abstract thinking and intellectual logical analysis.

Skeuomorphic UI designs make users feel comfortable. They put the user into a creative, curious mood by easing apprehension that a user might have in learning a new interface. Skeuomorphic UI designs are aimed at the primitive brain, not the analytical, which is why trying to analyze their pedagogical efficacy misses the point.

Things I wish Siri could do

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:03:00 -0700

Apple’s new Siri intelligent agent for the iPhone 4S understands a bunch of useful stuff, but I wish it could do more. Here’s a list of tasks that I wish Siri could help me with:

“Remind me to give Mark his present when I see him next” — use Find My Friends to discover that Mark is close, then remind me to give him a present.
“What flights are leaving tomorrow for Seattle?” — this use to work in Siri the app, but no longer does in Siri for iPhone 4S.
“Tweet ‘hi there #vegastech’” — full integration with Twitter and Facebook, and a full understanding of hashtags and Twitter handles.
“Launch TweetBot” — app launcher would be great!
“Reserve a table at a good Italian restaurant.” — Siri use to have this ability by using OpenTable in the app version. Not so in iPhone 4S.
“When’s a good time to book a two-hour meeting this Thursday?” — returns some choices for when the meeting might occur. Although this doesn’t work, you can ask Siri “what’s going on at 3 this Thursday?”
“What songs do I have by Dave Matthews?” — returns a list of songs. Interestingly, she does understand this query, but says “Sorry Mike, I can’t search that content.”
“Show me a preview for ‘Green Latern’” — Siri the app use to return actual movie previews that you could watch. Not so on the iPhone 4S.
“What movies are playing tonight?” — Siri the app use to return movies that were currently playing in theaters. Again, not on the iPhone 4S.
“How much time do I have before my next meeting?” — she answers with the time and date of your next meeting. However, she doesn’t go as far as actually giving you a time span. She has this data, she should be able to answer the question.
“Tell Mel he owes my $20” — There is no “Mel” in my address book because he’s under his full name “Melvin”. Siri should learn nicknames.
“Show me reviews for Joseph’s Restaurant” — she would return Yelp results.

To be fair, Siri does a few smart things that I didn’t expect. For example, ”remind me to call Kaywood in a minute” not only notifies you of your call, but she also pops up a dialog box offering to call Kaywood (which, I think, is more a function of the Reminders app).

Photo

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 19:35:27 -0700

Exactly right.

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 23:20:28 -0700

Exactly right.

I don’t really have much to say other than have a great...

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:16:01 -0700

I don’t really have much to say other than have a great time wherever you went. You’ll continue to have a space the size of a deck of cards reserved in my pants pocket. Rest in peace dude.

Ally Bank is an Internet bank without a brick-and-mortar...

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 18:29:00 -0700

Ally Bank is an Internet bank without a brick-and-mortar presence. I find it ironic that to date they still don’t have a mobile-optimized experience. And when I say mobile-optimized experience, I mean iPhone app.

Recently, I had a need for a bank with a mobile app that could deposit checks using the iPhone’s camera. I had considered Chase bank, but I just don’t like them. I think banks with a “you’re just a number” attitude like Chase will be given a run for their money by more forward thinking banking experiences like BankSimple, due to open this year.

I opened an account with PNC because they had an iPhone app with remote deposit. Unfortunately, the app is utter crap. It times out on login eight out of ten times. You can’t even access remote deposit until you’ve banked with them for 30 days, but they don’t mention that anywhere in the app’s description. Instead you’re left to hunt all over the app for a button that doesn’t exist. I wasted a good thirty minutes looking for it and Googling for some kind of manual. I’m likely going to close the account.

I like Ally Bank, the absence of hidden and ATM fees, and their decent web experience, but I’m left wishing that they had a top-notch mobile experience to match. I’m not alone. Point your browser at their blog and do a search for “iPhone” to see what I’m talking about. To see if I could take this discussion from their blog into a more public arena, I created the Ally Bank needs an iPhone app Facebook page. I also created an app mockup to use as an avatar and to exercise my Photoshop skills a bit. If only all banking applications looked as good and worked as well as Tweetbot.

Anyway, I guess I’ll wait until someone gets online banking right. I’m banking (pun intended) on BankSimple, but I also have high hopes for Ally. If you happen to be an Ally customer, I hope you’ll like my Facebook page.

"Has that been Photoshopped a lot?"

Sat, 06 Aug 2011 13:05:02 -0700

"Has that been Photoshopped a lot?":

chartier:

Ben Long, CreativePro.com:

“Image editing” starts as soon as you lift your eye to the viewfinder. What you choose to include in the frame is a massive edit of the scene before you, and it’s important to understand just how powerful this “cropping” of the real world can be.

Yup.

A phone number formatting category on NSString

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 09:23:00 -0700

Actually, all the credit goes to Ahmed Abdelkader for this code. All I did was stick it in an easy-to-use category.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License which basically means you can use it free for any purpose as long as you give proper attribution.

NSString+PhoneNumberFormatting.m

//
//  NSString+PhoneNumberFormatting.m
//
//  Created by Mike Manzano on 7/28/11.
//
//	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
//
//	Adapted from work by Ahmed Abdelkader on 1/22/10, whose work is
//  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
//	http://the-lost-beauty.blogspot.com/2010/01/locale-sensitive-phone-number.html

#import 

// Supported locales
extern NSString *xPhoneNumberLocale_US ;
extern NSString *xPhoneNumberLocale_UK ;
extern NSString *xPhoneNumberLocale_JP;

@interface NSString (PhoneNumberFormatting)
- (NSString *)formattedPhoneNumberForLocale:(NSString *)xPhoneNumberLocale ;
@end

NSString+PhoneNumberFormatting.m

//
//  NSString+PhoneNumberFormatting.m
//
//  Created by Mike Manzano on 7/28/11.
//
//	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
//
//	Adapted from work by Ahmed Abdelkader on 1/22/10, whose work is
//  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
//	http://the-lost-beauty.blogspot.com/2010/01/locale-sensitive-phone-number.html


#import "NSString+PhoneNumberFormatting.h"

NSString *xPhoneNumberLocale_US = @"us" ;
NSString *xPhoneNumberLocale_UK = @"uk" ;
NSString *xPhoneNumberLocale_JP = @"jp" ;


@implementation NSString (PhoneNumberFormatting)

+ (NSDictionary *) sharedPhoneFormats
	{
	static NSDictionary *formats = nil ;
	
	static dispatch_once_t onceToken;
	dispatch_once(&onceToken, ^{
		NSArray *usPhoneFormats = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
								   @"+1 (###) ###-####",
								   @"1 (###) ###-####",
								   @"011 $",
								   @"###-####",
								   @"(###) ###-####", nil];
		
		NSArray *ukPhoneFormats = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
								   @"+44 ##########",
								   @"00 $",
								   @"0### - ### ####",
								   @"0## - #### ####",
								   @"0#### - ######", nil];
		
		NSArray *jpPhoneFormats = [NSArray arrayWithObjects:
								   @"+81 ############",
								   @"001 $",
								   @"(0#) #######",
								   @"(0#) #### ####", nil];
		
		formats = [[NSDictionary alloc] initWithObjectsAndKeys:
							 usPhoneFormats, xPhoneNumberLocale_US,
							 ukPhoneFormats, xPhoneNumberLocale_UK,
							 jpPhoneFormats, xPhoneNumberLocale_JP,
							 nil];
		});
	
	return formats ;
	}


- (BOOL)canBeInputByPhonePad:(char)c 
	{
	if(c == '+' || c == '*' || c == '#') return YES;
	if(c >= '0' && c <= '9') return YES;
	return NO;
	}

// Strips out invalid characters
- (NSString *)strip:(NSString *)phoneNumber 
	{
	NSMutableString *res = [[[NSMutableString alloc] init] autorelease];
	for(int i = 0; i < [phoneNumber length]; i++) 
		{
		char next = [phoneNumber characterAtIndex:i];
		if([self canBeInputByPhonePad:next])
			[res appendFormat:@"%c", next];
		}
	return res;
	}


- (NSString *)formattedPhoneNumberForLocale:(NSString *)xPhoneNumberLocale 
	{
	NSString *phoneNumber = self ;
	NSArray *localeFormats = [[NSString sharedPhoneFormats] objectForKey:xPhoneNumberLocale];
	if(localeFormats == nil) return phoneNumber;
	NSString *input = [self strip:phoneNumber];
	for(NSString *phoneFormat in localeFormats) 
		{
		int i = 0;
		NSMutableString *temp = [[[NSMutableString alloc] init] autorelease];
		for(int p = 0; temp != nil && i < [input length] && p < [phoneFormat length]; p++) 
			{
			char c = [phoneFormat characterAtIndex:p];
			BOOL required = [self canBeInputByPhonePad:c];
			char next = [input characterAtIndex:i];
			switch(c) 
				{
				case '$':
					p--;
					[temp appendFormat:@"%c", next]; i++;
					break;
				case '#':
					if(next < '0' || next > '9') 
						{
						temp = nil;
						break;
						}
					[temp appendFormat:@"%c", next]; i++;
					break;
				default:
					if(required) 
						{
						if(next != c) 
							{
							temp = nil;
							break;
							}
						[temp appendFormat:@"%c", next]; i++;
						} 
					else 
						{
						[temp appendFormat:@"%c", c];
						if(next == c) i++;
						}
				break;
				}
			} // build temp loop
		if(i == [input length]) 
			{
			return temp;
			}
		} // for each format
	return input;
	}
@end

Comehangwith.me (Taken with instagram)

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 19:55:16 -0700

Comehangwith.me (Taken with instagram)

Desktop vs. Web apps at #FOWA. (Taken with instagram)

Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:28:25 -0700

Desktop vs. Web apps at #FOWA. (Taken with instagram)

Startup Weekend Las Vegas Presentations #SWLV (Taken with...

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 18:40:51 -0700

Startup Weekend Las Vegas Presentations #SWLV (Taken with Instagram at El Cortez Hotel & Casino)

Mini (Taken with Instagram at Ceasar’s Palace - Forum...

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 10:28:17 -0700

Mini (Taken with Instagram at Ceasar’s Palace - Forum Shops)

Evil dog checkers (Taken with instagram)

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 22:44:33 -0700

Evil dog checkers (Taken with instagram)

Why apps and app stores matter.

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 11:33:22 -0700

Why apps and app stores matter.

Logical punctuation: Should we start placing commas outside quotation marks? - By Ben Yagoda - Slate Magazine

Mon, 30 May 2011 10:19:00 -0700

Logical punctuation: Should we start placing commas outside quotation marks? - By Ben Yagoda - Slate Magazine:

I was wondering about quotes and punctuation the other day and waffling over what style I wanted to adopt for this blog. I think I’m going with the logical/British style.

Yogurt shop (Taken with Instagram at Tivoli Village)

Mon, 23 May 2011 21:10:27 -0700

Yogurt shop (Taken with Instagram at Tivoli Village)

Apple's goal is to make happy customers, not to advance point-of-sale technology

Mon, 23 May 2011 18:41:00 -0700

Erika Morphy over at Forbes recently wrote about her disappointment with Apple’s retail revamp in Apple (Finally) Jumps on the Point-of-Sale Bandwagon. She’s disappointed because “… in truth, there is much more Apple could do to for the customer [sic] at the point of sale.”

However, it seems to me that Erika’s simply upset that Apple’s store update isn’t cool enough for her. Her “real-life” examples fall flat and seem as if they were snatched out of a badly crafted Google search for the sole purpose of filling white space.

She says regarding QR Tags:

Home Depot, Lowe’s and other hardware stores are deploying these. Basically 2D barcodes are attached to products or their nameplates that can be scanned with a web-enabled camera phone. What it pulls up can be anything from videos demonstrating how to use, say, a lawn mower, or other tips or support resources for the post-sale.

The Apple Store is not Home Depot. You can get lost in Hope Depot. I’ve gotten lost in Home Depot. When you’re standing in one of their cavernous aisles and all you hear are blind albino frogs croaking, then yes, scanning a QR code might be a good way to get information about a product. But QR codes are not a better experience than Apple’s iPad-based information displays. For Home Depot, QR codes are simply more feasible than installing an interactive display for its thousands of products.

QR codes are fiddly and have burdensome pre-requisites. You have to know what they are. You need a mobile device. You must download an app that knows how to scan QR codes. You must deal with low light and blurry pictures. You must have the patience to wait while information is being fetched over a potentially slow network.

Why would Apple introduce such a bad experience to its retail customers when its small in-store footprint makes it feasible to place an iPad that already contains all needed information in front of every product? And why not do so in a way that introduces the customer to an iPad?

The function of the iPad display is to organize high-level information better than the paper it replaces. When the customer needs more information than is available on the iPad he can use it to call an Apple Specialist over. The specialist can then have a real-life honest-to-goodness person-to-person conversation to build a better relationship with the customer.

QR codes don’t (by themselves) help to organize information, and they certainly don’t help connect the customer to a human.

Erika’s next example involves (of all things) interactive vending machines:

Okay not exactly ideal for the retail store, but if Apple wanted to expand its retail footprint even more with kiosks or pop-up stores these would be an ideal.

PepsiCo debuted its Social Vending System, a vending machine sporting full touch screen interactive technology, at the National Automatic Merchandising Association’s One Show in Chicago earlier this year. The consumer gifts a friend a drink by entering his or her name, mobile number, text message and even short video if the gifter chooses. The drink is redeemed at a social vending machine.

The point of Apple’s retail stores is not simply to vend. It’s to educate the public on their products. It’s to build human relationships. I haven’t yet had a meaningful relationship with a vending machine. I think I want to keep it that way. And regarding a “Social Vending System,” let’s dive below shallow analysis into the deep blue waters of common-sense and reason.

I could be convinced that PepsiCo’s Social Vending System might work. Cans of Coke are small. They only cost a couple of bucks. You can make a crap load of these machines to place on the corner of every K-Mart. Hell, they already do make vending machines to place on the corner of every K-Mart.

But now pretend these vending machines don’t contain cheap cans of pop but instead products that start at $49 and range to thousands. How much of your expensive inventory are you going to have locked up on random curbsides? Do you really think making your friend pick up his graduation or birthday gift from a vending machine sends him the right message?

Erika’s last attempt at a real-life example revolves around the iPad display’s level of interactivity.

Why stop with calling a sales rep and custom ordering a Mac? How about iPads that recognize the customer – perhaps he or she has to enter an email address to launch it — and then offers personalized discounts. Assuming Apple were ever to offer discounts outside of Black Friday.

Sure, because customers are so good about logging themselves out of computers. Yes, I’m being snarky. And I’m perfectly happy to leave it at that.

With regard to offering “personalized discounts,” is Erika suggesting that Apple also revamp its pricing model simply so that their displays can be “more interactive?” Customers shouldn’t be playing with the iPad, they should be playing with the product they’re considering to purchase.

Yes, I know I said above that the displays are a great way to introduce customers to the iPad. But that exposure should just be appetizing enough to get you ready for the main course.

The problem with Erika’s article is that it assumes Apple is revamping its stores to jump on some “bandwagon”, implying that Apple is behind the times compared to other retailers. But Apple doesn’t jump on bandwagons. It’s usually the horse that’s pulling it.

Like the upgrades to its software and hardware products, Apple is introducing these changes to give the customer a better experience and to create relationships. The goal here isn’t to advance “point-of-sale technology and concepts.” It’s to make happy customers.