Gadgetry
Monday, May 31, 2010
Font Management in OS X, 10.4-10.6
Fonts in OS X seems to change in every version. They’re a mystery, wrapped in a puzzle, often dotted with a umlaut and an accent-grave. Whether you’re a a Flash developer wondering why your final Helvetica looks larger than it should be, or a print designer who’s output looks strangely un-kerned, this link is for you…
I know nothing about JKL Studios other than they’ve got the most detailed and easy-to-understand overview I’ve seen about Mac font management.
Read it.
Learn it.
Live it.
And download the PDF for when you stupidly remove the LucidaGrande.dfont from your /System/Library/Fonts/ directory.
No…I admit to nothing.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Podcasts not syncing - here’s the fix
Can’t sync your podcasts? Playlists with podcasts don’t show up on your iPhone? Here’s the fix..
Previously the Podcast bug affected only the playlist order, but in the current iTunes 9.0.3 and iPhone 3.1.3 firmware (for example) the bug will remove any Podcast in a playlist from the iPod section of the device. If the Playlist is comprised of only podcasts, the playlist will not even be visible on the device (it will show in the iTunes sync).
To return podcasts to a playlist, you have to use the iTunes 9 trick:
Then your podcasts return in a playlist in the correct order, but you’ll have to toggle it on again to update the playlist list.
This bug has existed since iTunes 9 and it seems to only be getting worse. Hopefully Apple will fix it soon - I can’t believe they don’t want us to listen to podcasts in a playlist! C’mon Apple - fix this already!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
The 27th cometh for the last of a 1000 times
Ever since my trusty Newton program was cancelled by the just-returned Steve Jobs, people have been speculating about a new Apple Tablet. What they mean to say is that mouse-based computing was then beginning to suck. So will does Jan 27th mean to computing? Let’s prognosticate!
I think we can all agree - we’ve all had about enough of the Apple Tablet vapor/rumor-mill over the years. In some ways, I’m too nervous to even contemplate what the experience will be like on one. My experience with Sony smartphones never prepared me for an iPhone life; no-one saw it coming. It was new, fresh, a complete rethink of the phone experience, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a damn better world because of the iPhone.
I say that because people today poo-poo the Mac and it’s graphic interface, and there are generations living now that have no idea what it’s like to boot up a tape-drive and wait 5 minutes for a text adventure to start. And rightly so: these were neanderthal systems and the more advanced graphic systems left this branch of early hominid-interface far, far behind. You have to know where you came from to appreciate where you’re going.
For years, there was a constant howling about what the next steps should be. I genuinely missed my Newton (I still have one, a 2100, sitting on a shelf - near pristine and unused) but the downsides were too much to bear in this connected world. For years, at every coming of a MacWorld, the whispers that a new “tablet was coming” drove bloggers into a delicious madness.
Such speculation considered the Tablet to be a small, light Mac. With Apple’s current success, desires morphed it into a big iPhone. Big iPhone = Dumb Tablet, at least to me. The core of the iPhone’s success is it’s ability to move small bits of information to and from you - a photo, a video, a web page, a tweet. Small screen, small consumption.
Enter the Apple Invite for the 27th of January 2010:
Looks like whatever it is, it’s primarily a creative device. The Zapruderization of the invitation has already fueled another day’s speciousness and speculation. The truth is, as we always already know, not to be found on webpages anywhere. This is the age of the news we want, not the news we need.
I know nothing other than what I’ve experienced with the iPhone (v1 & v3), my Newton, a decade of experience with Macs and my desire for a Star Trek slate handed to me by a pretty yeoman. But since blogs are a suckers game…I’m in.
What I’d like to think is this:
But that’s all I can guess at, given what we all know; anything more is a mugs game. I’ve got the credit card warmed-up and parked in the garage, raring to go. I’ll let you know what happens to my bank balance in a bit over a week..
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
iPhone: Matchin’ color like it’s 1999….
Perhaps the UGLIEST iPhone app website to date….and it sells a color designer.
Okay - I’m a designer and I’m picky (although you can’t tell from the dumping ground this blog has become. Still…).
There’s nothing to prepare you for the 8-bit color flashback that is the Raisix Inc website, set up to sell its ColorMatch software for iPhone. (Click either link - it’s a 1-page site)
With all the aplomb of a ‘90s Powerpoint slide, it just dumps itself to your screen, as if sent by a color fax minion from Hell.
Enjoy - I’ve linked a 24-bit PNG screenshot (440k or so) to the thumbnail above, just so there’s no question that I’m messin’ with the site:
THRILL to the derring-do of creating a website with a 16-color pallet!
AWE yourself to the crispy masking techniques and the ever-so-tactile moire!
AMAZE your other designer friends! They’ll LOVE you for it!
Both cliqcliq Colors and Color Expert must be quaking in their boots!
Friday, September 26, 2008
A new toy for my iPhone: iBlogger
Very cool new app for the iPhone, which supports a variety of content systems like ExpressionEngine.
Uses the camera, does geotagging, links, categories and tags, and likely more - In fact, I’m soaking in it.
I’ll give it a full review as we come to understand each other…
Try it here: IBlogger
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