WWDC 2012 - Predictions

Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) is right around the corner. The feature Keynote address is probably one of my favorite times of the year... actually any Apple Keynote event is great. With WWDC 2012 less than two weeks away the rumors are flying around the internet. These are my thoughts on the subject.

Thoughts on Flash

Since the invention of the iPhone, it has been heavily scrutinized for its inability to run Flash. Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs publicly shared his thoughts in the famous Apple's thoughts on Flash letter back in 2010. Here we are 2 years later and the iPhone (and iPad) are still flash free.

And it appears mobile devices are going to stay Flash-free. Adobe has put an end to the mobile flash development. Yet I still hear potential cell phone consumers (and sometimes new iPhone owners) complaining about this "hindrance." What is the big deal anyway? I have been an iPhone user since the 3GS and the number of times "Flash-inability" has ruined my internet browsing experience is exactly... never. Sure I have come across the "you must install Flash" badge on a handful of occasions however, it is rarely hindering the reason that I have navigated to that page. Furthermore, if the page requires Flash there is most likely another non-Flash-based site with the content that I am looking for.

In my opinion there is another way to view Flash and this is probably the more important argument to have.

What's your experience with Flash in the mobile world? Do you encounter Flash issues regularly? Are you sad to see it go? Comment below.

Tips: Internet Automation - ifttt.com

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pintrest...) are all platforms to share information. Many of us have multiple accounts in order to interact with different groups of people. The difficulty is managing all these accounts while staying on top of other repetitive tasks. That's where ifttt comes in.

iPhone Repair

The iPhone 4 and 4S have raced to the top of the mobile phone market. With the popularity being so high, accidents are inevitable; luckily parts and tool providers are plentiful however repair-skills required go from Basic to Challenge Accepted.

Tips: Wallpaper

Desktop wallpaper is one of the easiest changes to make in personalizing your computing experience. Depending on your taste, the default system wallpapers may be enough to satisfy your desired theme.

But wallpaper is not just for the desktop computer anymore.

All of our mobile devices now have wallpaper options and since the aspect ratio is nearly opposite of our desktops and notebooks, the choices for using a similar wallpaper on all platforms while keeping them aesthetically pleasing on each decreases.

My favorite site for high quality wallpapers is mantia.me. Not only are the graphics beautiful and of great quality but there is an optimized version for each device that I may want to us it on. On top of that, some of the graphic even include alternate images (the "Lego" wallpaper is a perfect example of this).

Where do you normally find your device wallpaper?

Did you know you can customize your device beyond the background picture? Check out these iOS tweaks that do not required jailbreaking.

How-To: Enable iPhone/iPod Emoticons

There are plenty of third-party apps in the App Store that offer additional options (or add-ons) for text messaging. One of my favorites is TextPics (or there is a free version available here). However, did you know that there is a plethora of standard emoticons available through the iOS 5 native software?
This feature has not been widely advertised, and is buried deeply within the settings menu. To be more specific, it has been camouflaged as an "international keyboard" under the language "emoji."
For full instructions, follow this easy how-to that I posted over at WonderHowTo.com.

Enjoy your new emotion-filled text conversations.

How-To: Email

No Offense

I admit, the title for this post is slightly condescending but allow me to explain. Email is one of the cornerstones of computing both in our work and personal lives, yet most of us neglect to foster good habits to ensure our inbox remains user-friendly. Surprisingly there is very little time and energy involved in making sure your digital mail experience is both friendly and rewarding.

Inbox Analysis 

How many messages are in your inbox? And I am not referring to new or unread messages.

At the peak of my email neglect I had over 2000 messages in my inbox (the email address was less than 2 years old)! All of them were marked as "read" and all of them were in various stages of completion. Now I hope that you are not in a similar situation otherwise this comic is probably an accurate representation of you email habits.
If you can relate with any of this, or are just looking to improve your own management system, keep reading. There is hope.

Introducing...

Steve

I have to be honest, my name is not Steve. Nor is my nickname. Nor have I ever been called Steve (except by that one person who thought they recognized me and insisted on guessing my name). My name is not Steve but Steve is a part of me. Allow me to explain. During the years of Window's '98, I came to the realization that someone, somewhere was creating all the printed media that I enjoyed consuming. It was at that moment that imaginary Steve knocked on a door in my brain and said, "Hey! We could do that."

The early years

Being 13 years old and armed with MS Paint, Microsoft Word, and greeting card generating program I started designing graphics. The first, of course, was to be a logo in order to brand myself and have my masterpieces easily recognized. After hours of work spread over multiple days, the logo was complete. It was "STEVE'S STUDIO" in white Stop font angling slightly upward in the center of a 12-point blue star, giving the appearance of a casually placed sticker. It was perfect.

With the logo complete (and saved as a *.doc file) it was time to start building a portfolio. The question was, where to begin? Webdings would be the beginning. These glyphs were nice, but very boring in black and white. One-by-one I colourized the Webdings font. Which made for good practice of my next endeavor.

At the time the graphics on skateboards were very intriguing. Using the "Drawing" toolbar in Microsoft Word I created a to-scale outline of a skateboard which would serve as both my canvas and template for my first graphics. Sadly, these graphics were lost when that computer crashed.

With all my hard work gone, I hung up my graphic designer dreams and moved on to other things. Steve on the other hand, did not give up on the dream...he waited.

...

By the way, my real name is Byron.

Along with the continuation of the story of Steve, this blog will also contain how-to's, tips, tricks, and history revolving around my experience with and around technology.