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1. App Groups

Initially, several screens filled with colorful app icons was fun.  Flicking around from left to right was just part of the experience.  Eventually, most users began to wonder if there wasn’t a better way to categorize their apps rather than just having them float around in random positions.  And if you wanted to make any sense of your screens by systematically positioning your apps; you were met with an never ending time-consuming process as soon as you added a new app.  Amazingly, 3 versions of the OS has not addressed this need.  Perhaps that’s why so many users jailbreak their iPhone to use a more user-friendly OS.  Take note Apple.

2. Safari Search

I’m not talking about searching for lions or tigers or zebras on an African plain — rather I’m talking about one of the most fundamental capabilities one needs when sifting through large amounts of text — TEXT SEARCH!  I can’t count the number of times I’ve ended up on a gigantic blog and need to find one snippet or comment only to give up after having scrolled the entire page and missing it.  On a computer I’d just hit CTRL+F and search.  A new iPhone OS needs this feature.

3. Merge Contacts

There are many ways we get duplicate contact information in our iPhones.  Whether we sync to popular contact management software, receive vCard profiles in MMS or email, or simply inadvertently create a new contact in the process of quickly trying to get an email out.  The point is that duplicate data creeps into our address book one way or another.  If you have ever attempted to clean this up you know that it turns into a time-consuming process testing the extent of your sanity.  A native function of the address book app should allow you to merge contacts on a field by field basis choosing which data to keep.  Not terribly difficult to do.

4. YouTube Account Management

The YouTube app is fun and useful… unless you have a YouTube account and want to do something useful with it.  iPhone 3Gs allows you to upload video taken on your device via your YouTube account.  A very cool feature.  But any attempt to edit details of your video — let alone delete the video — requires you to login to the actual YouTube website.  You might be saying, “That’s okay, I’ll just access my account via Safari on the iPhone.”  Sadly, both the Touch and Mobile versions of the YouTube website don’t allow this functionality either.  In order to make any meaningful changes to your videos (i.e. edit comments, edit tags, edit names, delete, etc.) you will have to view the Full version of YouTube within Safari.  Lame and/or fail.

5. Multi-Tasking

I personally don’t buy the argument that iPhone hardware isn’t capable of handling multi-tasking.  Even if users were limited to only 5 concurrently running apps it would be better than what we have now.  There are some things we do in one app that we would like to leave to a background process while we move on to another item.  For example, if we are waiting for a webpage to load we might want to check out Facebook.  When we leave Safari to go to the home screen in order to start Facebook; Safari stops working.  That means if I come back to Safari (even a couple minutes later) the page I had meant to navigate to will still be in limbo.  Am I really to believe that a few processing cycles can’t be diverted to a separate app?  Surely email I’ve “sent” in the mail app is still delivered even when I leave that app.  Why can’t the same be applied to other apps?

A big thank you to everyone who donated money and sponsored my 5K run!

I ran alongside hundreds of others in Beachwood, Ohio this morning as part of the annual Race for the Place fundraising event.  All proceeds raised (including your donation!) directly support The Gathering Place and allows their organization to continue offering services free of charge to families touched by cancer in Northeast Ohio.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge each person who sponsored my run:

1. Bill Reid
   re:id design
2. Gay Wellington Geigel
   My mom!
3. Jason Kiss
   Friend, Sherwin Williams/CSU Comp. Sci. Grad Student
4. Jody Conner
   Office Manager, Great Lakes Financial Group
5. John Soper
   Professor of Economics, John Carroll University
6. Ken Bossin
   Northeast Ohio Attorney
7. Kent Davis
   Friend, DatASIA, Inc.
8. Loung Ung
   Cambodian Author & Lecturer
9. Mark Hauserman
   Director of the Muldoon Center for Entrepreneurship, John Carroll University
10. Martha West
    Ink Shop Marketing, Inc.
11. Ryan Shary
    Friend, Vibrant Mind Studios, Inc.

I’ve been debating what to write for my next blog post for some time.  There have been a few inarticulate ideas kicking around, but nothing inspiring enough to get me in front of the computer.  Then, this morning, it hit me.  I’m thankful for so many things in my life — not in a Thanksgiving-I-am-thankful-for sort of way — but sincerely thankful that certain things in my life are the way they are.  Here is a list (open to tweaking) in no particular order.

Thank God…

1. I’m not married.
2. I don’t have a kid.
3. I have a mom and dad who love me.
4. I have great friends.
5. I’m a male.
6. I’m intelligent.
7. I’m creative.
8. I’m my own boss.
9. I went to college and graduated in 4 years.
10. I’m going to law school.
11. I’ve been to Ireland.
12. I’ve loved at least one person in my life.
13. I have my awesome car.
14. I’m not a virgin.
15. I have no disability.
16. I am able to run.
17. I am healthy.
18. I make/have enough money to pay my bills even in this economy.
19. Obama is our president.
20. I have a sense of humor.
21. I got through a difficult time with alcohol.
22. I’m not a religious fanatic (not that religion is bad).
23. I can keep a conversation going.
24. My sarcasm sometimes goes unnoticed.
25. I’m artistic.
26. I can solve a Rubik’s cube.
27. I can still take the derivative of an equation.
28. I look really good with a tan.
29. I don’t take shit from people.
30. For computers and the entire IT industry.
31. For movies and the entire movie industry (minus the MPAA — suck my balls)

Jeff Zimmerman and I will be running in a 5K race on June 7, 2009 to help raise money for an organization called The Gathering Place.  The Gathering Place is a support center providing programs and services free of charge for individuals and families touched by cancer.  The race takes place in Beachwood and more information can be found by visiting their website.

Jeff and I are asking for donations so we can meet our fundraising goal of $100.  Any amount would help — $5, $10, $20 — whatever you can afford.  You can make a donation online using a secure credit card form.

Thank you in advance for your donation.  You’re helping a good cause.

A customer of mine, Babin Building Solutions, is participating in the 2009 Cleveland Home & Flower Show and just for fun I went to the website to take a look.

What caught my eye — almost immediately — was the fact that the image used for the “General Information” menu item was of Ireland’s Powerscourt Garden.  Most people wouldn’t notice this, but I did.  I was there just 2 years ago, and the unique layout of the garden/walkway set against the unforgettable mountainscape is not something you fail to recognize.

This lead me to question whether it was appropriate for the Home & Flower Show to utilize this image, and more to the point legally, if they’re even authorized to use it.  Did the person who built this website take that picture?  Did the person who built this website acquire the picture from a stock photography suite?  Did they steal it from Powerscourt’s website or another source?  Does Powerscourt need to authorize the use of pictures taken of its property if they’re to be used commercially?  And, of perhaps less import, does it hinder the advancement of the Home & Flower Show’s mission, which is presumably to advocate the gardens built and maintained here in Ohio.  Surely an image of some magnificent garden locally would be better than using an image of gardens thousands of miles away in a country that has no real connection to Ohio.

Of course the benefit of the doubt has to play a role here as it always does.  Chances are that the Home & Flower Show does have the right to use the image.  Chances are they were simply interested in making their menu look cool by using a picture of a really cool garden.  Chances are no one in Ohio (save for me) will even notice this and comment on it.

But, I couldn’t let it go without giving Powerscourt the props it rightly deserves.  It’s an amazing place with perfect architectural landscaping, pristinely manicured lawns, hundreds of species of flora and a number of fountains/ponds that stop you in your tracks.  I’d like to see a garden like that in Ohio… if it exists.

Absolutely hilarious find by Katherine Dunn.

Fool’s Gold Digger