Category: Deep Thoughts

iUI and Android: Automagic Mobile Web Fun

Earlier this yaer, Joe Hewitt released a great library named iUI for easily developing iPhone-friendly mobile web applications using a basic set of HTML tags. Here’s a brief rundown of what it does:

* Create Navigational Menus and iPhone interfaces from standard HTML
* Use or knowledge of JavaScript is not required to create basic iPhone pages
* Ability to handle phone orientation changes
* Provide a more “iPhone-like” experience to Web apps (on or off the iPhone)

The good news is that since the Android platform uses the same WebKit browser, the iUI library works automagically with devices such as the T-Mobile G1. I had assume this, but to see that it basically works perfectly without changes, is great news. The only issue is that iUI obviously mirrors the user navigation elements and general interaction model of the iPhone native user experience. The iPhone model is highly usable and easy for most users to pick up, so I don’t think that is an issue, especially with the general lack of specific set of user interface guidelines for Android.

So, if you are looking for a quick way to build a usable, friendly, attractive web application that will work on iPhone AND Android, for now at least, iUI is your answer.

Here are some screenshots of the mobile site I developed earlier this year for Globalgrind.com. You can try it yourself by pointing your mobile device (it supports blackberry, wap, sidekick, etc as well) at: http://m.globalgrind.com or texting “ggrind” to 41411

GlobalGrind.com on AndroidGlobalGrind.com on AndroidGlobalGrind.com on Android

view the full screenshot set here….

Josh Enlightens Us on Perspective

I’m not much of political blogger, preferring to share my thoughts on the direction of our country and government over a beer or the dinner table. However, I do admire those that can and do participate in the neverending great online debate.

One of them is my friend, Josh Schrei, one of the best critical thinkers and eloquent rant writers that I personally know. He has been on a real tear recently on his blog The Schrei Wire. His latest post, written from Florence, Italy, is a continuation of a series of posts regarding the War on Intellectualism that Sarah Palin represents….

Its interesting to be here in the cradle of human enlightenment in the midst of our current debacle of a Presidential race, because, to be frank, it really puts things in… perspective.

So lets put things in perspective. One of our candidates for the highest office there is doesnt believe in evolution. She believes that dinosaurs and people coexisted on planet earth 5000 years ago, which, according to her is just about how old the world is. She believes in Armageddon. She believes that certain thoughts and ideas — in the form of books that go against her particular worldview — should be banned.

According to WikiPedia, “Perspective in theory of cognition is the choice of a context or a reference from which to sense, categorize, measure or codify experience, cohesively forming a coherent belief, typically for comparing with another.”

Simply put, Sarah Palin doesnt have perspective. She doesnt have the context that is the very defenition of perspective. Ill go out on a limb and say that she probably doesnt read that much. Shes never been abroad. She probably wouldnt care too much for David or Venus because David has a penis and you can see Venuses tits and she would probably think thats gross and immoral.


the view from Florence

read on here for the full post, and many others…

Update: Matt Browner-Hamlin, the other great political blogger I personally know, has a great round-up pile-on post on this topic, as well: Sarah Palin & Anti-Intellectualism:

Am I piling on in this post? Sure, because Palin’s brand of willful ignorance as is dangerous a force as any other that exists in the United States today. Willful ignorance, anti-intellectualism, and the tribalization of these forces against those who seek betterment through education are the shortest paths to the decline of the US as a great nation.

Me (the dork) and my G (the phone)

I picked this little wonder up today in “Zune” Bronze. I’ve even managed to load my own unofficial application on it (more on this later!).

So far, impressed and enjoying it. Voice quality seems great, which is of course, the essential. Beyond that, will let you know more as I put it through the paces of daily life.

Android User Interface Code is Not Easily Reusable

I’m ideally looking for someone to correct or enlighten me here, so please do!

The basic premise I want to put forward is that user interface components and libraries developed for the Android platform are not as easily reusable as standard Java Swing-based UIs. As opposed to simply linking a JAR file as you would in a J2SE or J2ME application, an Android developer must deal with the following files:

  • An XML layout definition
  • An entry in the R.java resource file
  • The class definition(s)

It isn’t just the variety of files, but the process of integrating the third-party code into your application in a clean way that I am concerned with.

Am I missing something here? Is there an easy to just import a JAR into your lib, and load all of this up at once, possibly referencing a resource file and a separate set of layout XMLs within that JAR?

Maybe I need to go back and re-read the Building Custom Components section of the Android Developer Guide. Hmm.

Diagramorama: Web 2.0 Portal Design




Web 2.0 Portal Design

Originally uploaded by nathanialfreitas

First in a series….

This was a solution developed for a client who wanted a deep portal experience for their target users, built through the integration of a variety of third-party services. Google Custom Search on a set of curated and keyword-filtered websites. Yelp for finding relevant business listings. Amazon’s E-Commerce API for promoting and selling featured products and building promotional partnerships with specific vendors. Ning as the community glue which would tie everything together. All of these components would be put together under a single skin, navigation and information architecture to create what should be a fairly seamless experience.

This approach can be used for pretty much any niche or target demographic, as well