I’ve been trying to get my extended family to use Amazon’s Wish List system for years to better manage gift lists for the holidays, so this is a particularly welcome addition. Inevitably, duplicate gifts are purchased, as there was no central place to manage non-Amazon gifts (such as a Sears Craftsman tool or gift certificate to a local restaurant) in the past.

Now, however, anything that can be found online (such as a Craigslist ad, eBay listing, photo from a news site, etc.) can be turned into an entry on your Amazon Wish List. Using the new Amazon.com Universal Wish List button, an object can be flagged from the browser toolbar in seconds.

As a side note, Steve Rubel points out that “it’s conceivable that this could become a social commerce feature over time given Amazon’s popular Associates program.” This brings up an interesting idea: if Amazon can now “collect” objects/items it doesn’t sell, track whether they’ve been purchased (and by whom), handle transactions with 3rd-party merchants, and offer “affiliate” (or referral) fees, why not extend the program to broker other 3rd-party affiliate promotions? Personally, I far prefer Amazon’s Affiliates program to LinkShare, Commission Junction, and others before it, in terms of ease of sign up, management, link building, and reporting. Why not take the next step by plugging in the 3rd-party affiliate programs, thus further extending Amazon’s ownership of the online shopping experience?

I instantly downloaded it, and added several of my WordPress blogs to the app. Aside from the annoying Twitter Tools glitch (which sent an empty tweet on blog setup), I was surprised to see some big omissions that would impede regular usage for site administrators… at least from my standpoint.

• Dashboard functions
  As readers here know, I don’t post every day. I do, however, very regularly check my WordPress Dashboard. The Dashboard wraps up basic stats, such as the five most recent comments, incoming links, number of new unapproved comments, and WordPress news for the package itself (and 3rd-party plugins).

  I find this data invaluable to know if there’s anything I need to take action on (such as marking a new comment as ‘approved’ or ’spam’) or learning about a security exploit.

• Global Drafts
  The second-most popular task for me in WordPress is creating and editing a draft post on the server. It generally takes me several revisions before I post a “post” here. (This one, for instance, has taken 10+ edits over 1.5 weeks.)

  Unfortunately, though, the iPhone WordPress app only can edit and save local drafts (i.e. those on the iPhone itself). This is probably the biggest deal-breaker for me. I don’t want to write and edit on my iPhone, as the keyboard is so awkward. I would, however, as it makes it convenient to drop in a quick edit or two, or get started on a new idea. But, preferably, I’d take a full, non-finger-crippling, physical keyboard experience over the on-screen, cramped digital keyboard. Because of this, I wouldn’t now dream of starting a post on the iPhone knowing I couldn’t switch back to the desktop keyboard later.

  Maybe one day Apple will allow Bluetooth keyboards to pair with the iPhone. (Maybe even starting with their own keyboards, in fact!) Until then, this app will just serve as a monitoring and quick editing environment.

  (Side note: It appears this issue may be larger than that of this app. I’ve noticed similar drawbacks plague ecto and MarsEdit, too. Anyone know why this is, and/or a workaround?)

• Links (add, remove, order)
  The iPhone has a number of built-in controls and UI elements for creating and managing lists. WordPress, too, has great built-in support for Links which populate a blog’s Blogroll section. Why not blend the best of both worlds? List management for your blog using the iPhone’s easy list management UI features? It sounds delightful.
• Widget addition, order, removal
  Similar to Link management, the ability to re-order, customize, and enable/disable Widgets for WordPress. Honestly, re-ordering widgets using the WordPress Web-based manager is rather awkward… having used the iPhone’s list control UI before, I imagine I’d prefer handling all Widget activity on the iPhone altogether.
• Plugin control and updates
  Plugins are well-known to cause performance issues for some WP blogs, and occasionally they can cause sites to come to a screeching halt. Being able to toggle a plugin on and off remotely would allow site administrators to quickly re-enable a site simply by flipping a plugin off (and/or back on). Further, WordPress now allows most plugins to be updated (when updates are offered) via the Web interface. As such, being able to click a couple links to bring all your plugins up-to-date would be very useful.
• Run backups
  The thing about backups is: you never think to backup your files till its too late… why not just offer the “Save to server” and “Email backup” options (sans “Download to your computer” due to limited iPhone storage opportunities)?
• Stats
  Last but not least, the WordPress Stats plugin has become invaluable to me. I’m a big fan of Google Analytics (who significantly raised the bar on visualizing web usage data several years ago), but there are few times that I head over to the Google site to check out how my blog is doing. The WordPress Stats plugin gives me my most basic visualizations (such as visitors over time, top posts, top searches, and most active) right on the Dashboard. It’s not a 3rd-party plugin, as its made by Automattic (the folks behind WP itself and Akismet), so no (legal) reason not to include in this package.

  I know the plugin currently uses Flash to render its chart, but I’d happily deal with a static, cached PNG or GIF if that got me some level of site monitoring via the app.

Please, don’t get me wrong. I understand I’m looking at a 1.0 release, not a 2.x or 3.x version. Many of the features I’m describing are fine to release after supporting basic posting functionality. Further, the app is free… which means the good folks at Automattic dropped at least a benjamin simply to offer freeloaders (like myself and all other WordPress user) a means of managing our blogs on the go. (So, to the good folks developing this app, “thank you.”)

Automattic has been kind enough to provide a list of upcoming bug fixes and features for the app. I didn’t see any of my ideas already listed there, but don’t doubt that as time passes, the app will become considerably more usable.

What features of the app do you find missing? And/or invaluable while on the go?

Update: Daniel Jalkut, author of MarsEdit, kindly offered a solution to the issue of Global Drafts, which ended up serving as a great workaround. (Thanks, Daniel! Anyone else know how to solve the remaining open 6 features?)

First, why would Kanye be defending (or “riding with”) Soulja Boy? And second, why would Kanye (who’s got something against everybody) say he’s got nothing against “nobody?” Neither made any sense to me. I had to read, and I’m glad I did.

Before I continue, I should note: the subject matter of the videos below is not for everybody. And by not everybody, I mean most anybody, particularly not for those who don’t enjoy hip-hop, braggadocio, considerable amounts of cursing, disrespect, and mockery. Also: laughter.

Back to the issue, Kanye fired off an opinion after watching some YouTube videos documenting the latest hip-hop Internet beef: Ice-T vs. Soulja Boy Tell Em. Turns out, Ice-T (the West Coast gangsta rapper once known for “O.G. Original Gangster” and “Cop Killer” and now known as Detective Fin Tutuola on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) decided to call out last year’s Internet and radio phenom Soulja Boy Tell Em (only known for last summer’s “Superman (Crank Dat)” dance and track) as the single-handed reason hip-hop is dead.

Ice-T’s Soulja Boy tirade

Bold words from T. Well, actually, bolder (and far more offensive) words were used, as well. Soulja Boy took some haranguing comments from Iceberg Slim on a mixtape drop promoting his new Urban Legends album. Soulja Boy heard the comments, grabbed a couple friends, hopped in front of their Mac’s high-resolution iSight camera, and responded as high school students do best: with incessant snaps about how irrelevant Ice-T was to anyone under the age of 50. Soulja Boy derides T for 7+ minutes, utilizing a Wikipedia article to fuel the flames.

He calls him out by name, references his East Coast-birthplace, 1950’s birthyear (in which he says folks were “still driving in wood cars”), and caps it with the classic “you should change your name to Lemonade cause you sweet” line. (”Sweet,” in this case, is suggesting that T’s image is a bit soft.)

Soulja Boy’s response

Ice-T, in turn, utilizes a 1980’s camcorder (likely VHS or Betamax) to capture his video retort. Unfortunately, the reply backfires, and for multiple reasons:

1. T appears in what could (at best) be described as a nouveau-riche-inspired retirement community,
2. T appears in a dated sports jersey (which was popular several years back),
3. T repeatedly apologizes and then berates SB (and others) in a passive-aggressive mess of thoughts,
4. T moves in and out of the camera’s viewfinder in a semi-nervous, “I’ve never done this before” posturing that doesn’t suggest a familiarity with self-published videos,
5. T repeatedly refers to “hip-hop” as being the one who will deal Soulja Boy justice for producing “garbage,” rather than himself.

Topping it off, Ice brings his son into the fray to talk trash at the end of the tape, too. All in all, an out-dated, out-gunned response using a medium he didn’t seem comfortable leveraging.

Ice-T’s response

So what does Soulja Boy do? Unleash the deathblow: a 4-minute, 55-second cartoon lambasting T as a “dinosaur-turned-gangsta rapper,” hypocrite, bad dancer, jealous has-been and crybaby. While crudely rendered, the animation repeatedly mocks T’s efforts at relevance to today’s market, and is highlighted a couple times with overdubbed, early 80’s Ice-T breakdancing footage.

Soulja Boy’s animated response

The animation, while juvenile and repetitive, proved Soulja Boy the clear winner. Having already lampooned T (particularly by having to look up T on Wikipedia to even know who he was) with 1.5-million-plus views of his video response, he upped the ante by having a cadre of folks write a script, animate it, and further shame one of the godfathers of West Coast rap.

Wanting to appear timely and relevant, Iceberg instead lived up to his moniker: slow, old, monolithic, and (in this global warming era) fading fast. SB took the beef from the rhyme arena (where Ice-T could have destroyed him in seconds) into a Web 2.0 world (where SB had already proven a grassroots, rags-to-riches success). And T sadly went along for the ride.

While watching that first Soulja Boy video, I was reminded of a wildlife documentary showing how prides of lions pass the mantle of leadership between generations. The elder lion is taunted by the younger upstart, who doesn’t quite seem to know his own power. The elder lion takes the taunts for a period of time, snapping at the young buck, but eventually hits a breaking point.

Of course, once he hits that point, he strikes, but cannot match the agility of the younger cat. Wounded, he is forced out from the pack, and left alone to die in isolation.

The saddest connection of this analogy is that Soulja Boy is hardly more than a flash in the pan, and many inside hip-hop culture would argue he’s not one of theirs (Kanye West respectfully excluded). Nonetheless, Ice-T got frustrated, picked on someone much, much younger than himself, and somehow managed to get schooled in front of the whole pride.

Certainly, he’ll retain some respect for his past achievements, but hip-hop is an entertainment-based industry… and the entertainment industry rarely focuses on or subsidizes once-was-hot artists. What today’s kids want is generally what today’s kids get.

With this beef now over, it’s pretty clear: if today’s kids didn’t previously know who Ice-T was (without checking Wikipedia), they certainly will now associate him with three things:

1. being old,
2. being sweet, and
3. being in possession of a museum-grade camcorder that used vacuum tubes to get its video out to the Internet.

Game over.

Shortly before I left the halls of Island Def Jam to come to Yahoo!, the company began promoting little-known Atlanta artist Lloyd on their Murder Inc. sub-label. After one spin, I smelled a stinker, and said so.

“No, no, no. Lloyd’s gonna be hot,” I heard.

Today, at a corporate office’s coffee bar in Silicon Valley, what did I see? A Lloyd “How We Do It” CD… offered not as a Lloyd CD, but rather (and rather mockingly at that) as a drink coaster.

It feels good being right every now and again.

Quick review: I wish I hadn’t committed to write this review. I find Internet Blackout to be offensive to those who enjoy comics, the Internet, and learning.

Full review: I’m a fan of O’Reilly. As a general rule, I’ve found their titles to be authoritative, practical, and a great reference when coding. I’m a daily reader of the O’Reilly Radar blog, and find Tim O’Reilly, the company’s founder, to have an accurate read on the technology industry’s pulse.

But, somehow, some way, this book happened into being under the label of O’Reilly. And I’m confused. Because, quite plainly, this comic is a mess from top to bottom. It has none of the trappings of the quality or consistency I’ve come to expect from the big O.

It sounds like its creators had a noble intent: “Hackerteen teaches young readers about basic computing and Internet topics, including the potential for victimization. The book is also ideal for parents and teachers who want their children and students to understand the risks of using the Internet and the proper ways to behave online.” Hackerteen is a real organization, with a similar mission, and the book is apparently a product of the group’s efforts.

As a new father myself, I can appreciate wanting to provide some guidance to the youth about online behavior and risks. I just can’t see how this book will do that, and I say that for two reasons.

First, as a comic book, Internet Blackout is not up to par. The reasons are myriad, but here are a select few:

• The story line hops six times on one page in several cases (and repeatedly throughout the book) without some sort of visual signaling, leaving me wondering what is happening page-by-painful-page.
• The artwork is downright sloppy. (Truly, “sloppy” is a kind representation… see page 57 for but one example of degenerative pencilling, crude coloring, and widely varying inking techniques… not to mention poor understanding of human anatomy.)
• Is this a superhero book? Or a book about gifted teens? Because what I see throughout the book confuses me greatly. Outlandish uniforms that even cosplay kids would decry as unimaginative (yet remain more believable than some of the X-Men 3 costumes) populate the same Bizarroverse as the Richie Rich-esque grandmother and the Mayberry-dwelling dad who changes appearance with his every appearance.

Second, as a story in general, I find it speaking down to its audience. We all remember that fateful, humorless time when our parents tried to emulate “the way these kids talk today.” The language was stilted, over-emphasized, and beyond awkward. Or trying to sound culturally aware by referencing yesterday’s star? In many ways, that describes the story line at large, as well as the conversations within Hackerteen. The tone is preachy, the language a bit off (When was the last time you heard anyone, much less someone under 30, use the term “cretin?”), and the drama overblown (soldiers on the battlefield in Iraq are somehow crippled by an Internet attack that doesn’t cripple the cable news channels from broadcasting).

Further, the book’s ending unravels into a series of disconnected vignettes. I’m not sure if those last pages were truly wrapping up the same story line I had been trudging through for the previous 90+ pages, but I didn’t care to double check. I was just happy to be done.

All told, this comic seems to suffer in the same vein as the design and appearance of many open-source, community-driven software projects; the result is a patchwork of unequal, disjointed contributions that you want to cheer on for its effort but would never recommend.

If you’re under 20, though, and reading this and have read the book, please let me know. Maybe a) Internet Blackout really does speak to its target audience, and b) that audience doesn’t pick apart the quality of the artwork. In the meantime, I’ll hope this was an anomaly in the O’Reilly publishing empire.

According to Wikipedia’s definition of “animal cracker,” they are “crackers in the shapes of animals… They are like crackers due to the way they are made, with layered dough, however the use of sweetened dough gives them the cookie taste and consistency.”

Tellingly, the definition also notes: “There is debate about whether or not Animal Crackers are actually crackers or cookies.”

And this is where I come in. See, I have this very debate roughly every two weeks. Someone will invariably see one of my animal cracker “snackin’ buckets,” and say, “Man, I love animal crackers, too! I remember those boxes as a kid with the circus animals, and…” And that’s where I stop them.

Nabisco’s Barnum’s Animals (Crackers) are far from animal crackers. Sure, they have animals on them, share a similar form factor, and even share similar packaging labels. But, they are animal cookies. Always have been. They are soft, buttery, crumbly, shortbread cookies. Not crackers.

According to Merriam-Webster, a “cracker,” is

“a dry thin crispy baked bread product that may be leavened or unleavened.”

Merriam-Webster then goes on to define a “cookie” as

“a small flat or slightly raised cake.”

Can there truly be much debate? Could an animal cracker be mistaken for a cake? (Maybe so, for its frosted cousins, such as the Keebler Frosted Animal Crackers, but not for the standard animal cracker.)

What, then, is the standard for the animal cracker? Stauffer’s originated the animal cracker in the US back in 1871. And, true to their legacy, they still make a mean animal cracker. Stauffer’s Animal Crackers have a similar outline and package as their cookied, Nabisco brethren, but follow through on their cracker promise.

Semi-sweet, crisp, and airy, Stauffer’s always delivers. Further, they offer good value. For a period of time, Costco offered a giant, 5 lb. Stauffer’s Bear Jug. I’ve seen smaller bear jugs and bags at Target and Walgreens occasionally, but unfortunately the consistency of the cracker is not matched with consistency of shelf stocking. (I can rarely find Stauffer’s on my shopping escapades.)

As such, I often find myself picking up Trader Joe’s Organic Animal Crackers for $2.99 for a 1-pound tub. I can’t say I know what’s “organic” about an artificial animal cracker, but I can say Joe makes a mean cracker.

And that’s what I’m always looking for… a great animal cracker. The world has many cookies, and Nabisco is behind many of them. But, their “animal crackers” are not among these cookie greats, nor their cheap, low-rent, imitation knockoffs. (I’m looking at you, Keebler and Borden.) The thing is, I don’t need any more new cookie encounters. Mostly, I don’t need Nabisco and friends converting their remnant cookie cruft into “crackers;” if future generations only encounter these cookies-in-disguise, they’ll never know the joy of a delicious, dry, crispy, baked, semi-sweet, bread product in the shape of an animal.

Instead, they’ll only be digesting disappointment.

Most interesting to me, however, has been their quiet rollout of MicroID support last week. ClaimID quickly posted, Fred Stutzman followed suit, and the MicroID blog alerted folks as well.

MicroID, for the uninitiated, is a snippet of code (which is made up a user’s email address and the URL of the current web page) which can be used by machines to verify the owner of the current web page. As a user, I find it incredibly annoying to tell the multitude of sites I use what other sites I use. (”You’re a computer,” I say. “Figure it out.”) As more sites roll out MicroIDs behind the scenes, pages/profiles I author (or am somehow responsible for, such as my YouTube Favorites links or my Amazon Wish List) could quickly be “sniffed out” by sites I already use.

Why would I want them to know what other pages/sites I use? I answered some of this in my interview upon joining YDN. But, quickly, it boils down to a decentralized and lightweight trust system that would allow the software behind any site at which I’m recognized to provide relevant content/recommendations. That, and I wouldn’t need to spend any time sharing all my other account usernames with a site I’m not even sure I want to continue using.

Anyway, MyBlogLog is following in the rich history of other major providers adding MicroID support: Digg, Plaxo, Last.fm, Wink, and others.

(Side note: As some may know, I had the good pleasure of working closely with the MyBlogLog team for the first two quarters of 2007. Aside from getting to getting to work on a new version of the Recent Readers widget and the all-new Profile widget (among migrating to the Yahoo! ID and the common Yahoo! profile representation), I got to work alongside some of the incredibly talented crew: Todd, John, Steve, Chris, Robyn, Ian and Eric.)

Additionally, Max’s plugin makes it easy to toggle between the production release and the more cutting-edge builds.

You can see an example of this plugin in the bottom-left corner of this page… just hover over the grey tab, and a pop-out bar will provide controls for playback of a series of MP3s I’ve hidden in this page’s code (courtesy of hip-hop mixtape master Mick Boogie).

Whenever I need to do a backup, I find myself repeating a pattern. I select a series of files and folders, and then check their total file size via the Finder’s Inspector palette (Cmd-Option-I) to see how close that is to the CD/DVD disc’s available space. Once I get just the right amount (i.e. 760MB, 4.3GB, or 8.1GB), I then want to isolate these files so as to remember which groups of files will make up their own disc.

The problem with this approach, is that the best way to do this (that I’d found to date) was to create a new folder, and move those files inside that folder. Unfortunately, I don’t always have a pile of empty folders waiting right along side these files ready to hold them. If I then create a new folder, it often loses the selection of the files I had (as the OS now focuses attention on the new folder, rather than the previous selection). As such, I then have to go through the same task I did before creating the folder (manually selecting and sizing different groups of files).

There has to be a better way. I tried a number of different 3rd-party add-ons and applications, but nothing quite did the trick. And, in the absence of all hope, I finally tried Apple’s Automator, which reminded me a bit of Yahoo!’s Pipes.

I first checked to see whether anyone else had solved this issue via Apple’s Automator Downloads and a 3rd-party Automator downloads site, but no go.

I then did what any grown man or woman would do… search for it on the Web. Still no luck.

Finally, I broke down, and tried to pipe a solution together in Automator.

It took hours. And several separate attempts.

Maybe you need a CS degree to figure out Automator? I’m not sure. But wiring together such a taskflow proved nearly impossible… at least, wiring together a graceful experience of such a taskflow proved impossible. Certain components in Automator allow variables, but I can’t define the output of one step as a variable that can then be used in another step. Unfortunate.

Eventually, and largely due to a mistake, I was able to get a solution in place by forcing a series of dialog boxes. It’s far from graceful, but now I can right/Control-click on items I’ve already selected, and then navigate a quick contextual menu tree (More » Automator » Move Selected Items to Folder). After several seconds, a pop-up dialog box then asks whether to save it to the Desktop. Instead, choose “Other…” from the “To:” drop-down menu, and then create a new folder wherever you desire in the resulting Open dialog box. Then press the Open button, followed by the Continue button, and voila: your selected files/folders move to their new folder.

You can download this ‘Move Selected Items to Folder’ Automator workflow, unzip the file, and install it on your Mac at “~/Library/Workflows/Applications/Finder/“. If those folders don’t exist, I imagine you probably just need to create that folder structure to be in business.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m happy Automator exists. Obviously, without it, I’d still be stuck with my broken taskflow. Nonetheless, Automator could stand to leverage some of Pipes’ learnings (such as variable creation and concurrent task operations). (And, not to be partisan, Pipes, of course, could leverage some Automator’s beauty and Recording functionality… maybe via a Greasemonkey script?)

If you’ve had similar taskflow problems, download the workflow, and let me know your thoughts. Also, if you know of a more graceful solution (or can code a more seamless Finder experience), please let me know… I imagine I’m not the only one who’s faced this issue before.

• Crush3r
  An events service that lets you send out beautiful, custom-designed invitations to your own list and doesn’t require signup of your guests.
• Loud3r
  A series of topic-based sites aggregating cream-of-the-crop sources most topical to each category. Fast3r (a motorcycle enthusiast site) and Vot3r (a timely election site) are both live.
• Thingfo
  A safe place where things hang out and find who has stories involving them.
• P0pulist
  A collection of folks’ favorite things, broken into popular categories. Think of it as one central place to enter your Top Ten lists for books, movies, games, music, etc. While still in private beta, you can signup easily, and approval comes quickly.
• Dipity
  A Facebook App for users to plot out timelines of their life events, Dipity can leverage your existing social timeline captured by Facebook to pre-populate your life story.

If you got a minute, take a gander at each. They’re each working diligently to incorporate user feedback into their products, and deserve a larger user base.

This effort was soon copied by MacUpdate, who offered a MacUpdate Promo bundle which also provided some great apps. MacHeist, not to be outdone, hacked that promotion, and offered users the ability to get additional free apps by buying the MacUpdate Promo bundle through its hack.

Well, it’s back again.

The new MacHeist II effort offers 11 Mac apps for $49. That includes the following applications:

• 1password, $29.95
  All your confidential information, including passwords, identities, and credit cards, is kept in one secure place provided by Apple’s OS X Keychain. Sounds useful. Verdict: Keep.
• AppZapper, $12.95
  I’ve been looking to get this one for some time. Adding and removing apps on the Mac is pretty simple, but it can be difficult to know where all an app tucked away its associated files. AppZapper makes it a simple issue. Verdict: Keep.
• Awaken, $12.95
  Awaken allows you to set any song in your iTunes library (or a playlist) as the buzzer on multiple alarms. Sorry, but my Mac isn’t by my bedside. Verdict: Pass.
• Cha-Ching, $40.00
  Checkbook balancing, budgets, bills and expenses handled “iTunes-style.” Me? I need automatic synchronization with my online accounts… I like software to do the work, not me. Verdict: Pass.
• CoverSutra, $22.00
  A CD jewelcase interface for iTunes with cover art on your desktop with Last.fm integration, fully customizable keyboard shortcuts, and instant player controls. Honestly? CoverSutra needs iTunes open to play music… I think I’ll stick with one app rather than two to do such a simple task. iTunes is way too bloated as is; last thing I need taking more memory is another music player. Verdict: Pass.
• CSSEdit, $29.95
  This is considered the top-tier CSS editor on the Mac. Happy to now have a full license, as I do a considerable amount of CSS-based design work. Verdict: Keep.
• iStopMotion, $49.00
  Use your Mac’s iSight to streamline the process of capturing and processing stop motion film. Sounds cute, although probably will only use once. Verdict: Will Try.
• Pixelmator, $59.00
  A layer-based image editor that uses the Mac’s built-in iSight, graphics card, and a full-screen editing mode. I beta tested this app early on, and will be interested to see how it matures. Verdict: Keep.
• Snapz Pro X, $69.00
  This one’s huge. It’s been the de facto screenshot and screen capture (i.e. video) app on the Mac for years. Verdict: Keep.
• Speed Download, $25.00
  Downloads from your browser, FTP, iDisk, are handled and sorted by type– movies go into Front Row, music goes directly into iTunes, etc. Sounds interesting… and likely to annoy. Verdict: Will Try.
• TaskPaper, $18.95
  A bare-bones, text-based to-do list to keep you organized. While I like the ability to edit either in the app or any other text editor, I’ve begun to take a liking to Things. Verdict: Will Try.

To top it off, MacHeist II will again donate 25% of its proceeds to one (or all) of the non-profits listed below:

• Action Against Hunger
• AIDS Research Alliance
• Alliance for Climate Protection
• Direct Relief International
• Humane Society International
• The Nature Conservancy
• Save the Children
• Save Darfur
• Prevent Cancer Foundation
• World Wildlife Fund

As I write this, $71,491 has already been raised for these organizations. Not bad.

So, check it out. $49 for CSSEdit, Snapz Pro, Pixelmator and 1Password alone would be a good deal; the rest is gravy. And, you’ll be helping some good folks in the process.

Address Book

Mac OS X’s Address Book is one of the strongest features of the entire operating system, in my opinion. Accessible not only through the Address Book application, it can be queried and manipulated by any other application. This means my contact info for a person can be called (and edited) by my instant messenger app, my email app, my photo management app, and even my library cataloging app.

That’s killer. Sadly, though, the Address Book application hasn’t received much attention since it was released years ago. Occasionally a new feature is added (two, in fact, with the new Leopard release!), but fundamental Address Book issues haven’t been resolved for years. I won’t try to catalog them all, as honestly, that’s a pretty big task. However, there are a couple tweaks that would add significant value.

• Additional Services

  The Web’s changed a bit since 2000. OK, it’s changed a lot. Kids these days aren’t emailing; they’re sending messages via Facebook. They’re posting video on YouTube. They’re calling on Skype. And they’re uploading photos on Flickr.

  But how do I represent any of them in Address Book, as I’ve got a lot of friends who use these services? I could add direct links to their profile pages as Web URLs, but that wouldn’t make it easy for other applications to make sense of that data in a meaningful way (the way they can with phone numbers, email addresses, instant messaging handles, etc.).

  In my mind, the best way to accommodate this issue would be extending what I call the “Services” list, which currently lists IM services: AIM, Jabber, MSN, ICQ, and Yahoo. (I can tell you, as well, how many times I’ve updated anyone’s Jabber, MSN, and ICQ fields… hint: it’s less than 10!)

  

  Address Book’s Services menu exposed

  Why can’t I add Skype, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, LiveJournal, etc. to the list? Why no “Custom” field for this list of services, the way there is with nearly all the other fields in an Address Book card? It’s a bit ironic, too, considering that the Web’s list of services grow at a far, far faster pace than, say, humanity’s definition of places like “work” and “home” or the 8 categories for a phone number.

• List My Groups

  What’s more embarrassing than trying to introduce your friend to someone whose name you don’t quite remember? Address Book seems to deal with this issue on a daily basis. Contacts can be added to multiple groups, a very useful feature. Problem is, once you’ve added a contact to several groups, how can you find out to which groups he/she has been added? Turns out, there’s an answer: while a contact card is selected, hold down the Option key. Once depressed, the associated group(s) on the left will highlight. Pretty cool.

  Only thing is, how did you know that? I sure didn’t. Took an accident of me wondering, “Why is one of the Groups highlighting when I accidentally pressed the Option key?” Neat discovery once I figured it out, but sadly, I’ve been trying to find how to determine what groups a contact belongs to for more than 2 years.

  This may sound crazy, but why not list the names of the associated Groups on the contact’s card? No one has to kill the fun Option key highlighting; but there could be a more intuitive way to lead to such a discovery.

• Big Boy Search

  This one’s simple. Know all those little modifiers you prepend to searches in Yahoo! and Google to get granular, advanced search results? Apple does; they use such operators for their OS-wide Spotlight search.

  Unfortunately, that power doesn’t translate to Address Book. Searching for “state:OH” doesn’t return folks who live in Ohio. Rather (and rather bizarrely), it returns anyone who had “United States” listed for their address’ country field and an “oh” in their name. I would propose, instead, that Address Book handle operator searches in the same fashion as OS X and major search engines. I know its not a regular feature most folks need, but it would give your power users and 3rd-party developers some great slices on the rich data contained inside.

• Fix Edit Mode

  Pierre Igot has actually done a fantastic job detailing issues with Address Book’s Edit mode problems, so I won’t try to compete with his thorough assessment. I’ll just say “+1″ and leave it at that. (Sad side note: his comments are 2+ years old.)

• Connections

  Address Book has a great feature: Related Names. I can enter in the name of a friend’s spouse or kid, as well as professional colleagues. Trouble is, though, these names are disconnected from… (drumroll) Address Book contacts! In other words, if under “Alex Meyer” I entered “Micah Laaker” in the “Friend” field, “Micah Laaker” wouldn’t in any way be connected with the “Micah Laaker” contact card in Address Book.

  Reduce the barriers between information. The Web has got me and millions of others used to hyperlinking to see more about an object… why not people in Address Book?

  Better yet, if the person on the contact card (let’s say my dad) has another person listed as “spouse” (i.e. my mom), and that spouse is listed in my Address Book, too, why not ask if I’d like to update her address after I update his? It would keep my Address Book data in much better shape, and show that Apple’s incorporating some of the best of Web functionality and smarts into its apps.

• Date autocomplete

  Address Book’s dates field used to be smart. No matter what input I gave it, it could turn it into a data. “11 Jun 75″ became “June 11, 1975.” “10/11/2007″ became “October 11, 2007.” This makes things easy. No matter what format folks typed their birthdate, anniversary data, whatever,

  And then Leopard came along.

  Somehow, someone at Apple decided it would be better if we all manually entered data

  The real kicker? Try entering a date the way you might say it (after being trained by so many Web forms): 6/11/75.

  

  Address Book’s “improved” date input field

  The result? You won’t guess this: “6/11/0075.”

  Wow.

  That is easily one of the last things I expected, considering the day before I upgraded to Leopard, it did the right thing. (Hint: 6/11/1975.)

  Honestly, I’ve never been this disappointed in software. (There’s lots of frustrating software out there, but few that went from “Ahh, that was really helpful!” to “Are you $%*# kidding me?!” And very few Apple software releases that made me angry.) I don’t think I even need to spell out a recommended course of action for this overall (and specific) issue. Please just fix this. Fast.

Apple took an embarrassing step backwards with the Leopard release of Address Book. No one sued Apple for infringing on some “make software smart” patents (at least that I’m aware of), so there was no need to cripple the product this late in the game. It should fix the date auto-complete issue immediately, and then get on to some other much-needed improvements. Why let Address Book sit with so little attention, when it is a backbone service for the entire operating system (and numerous 3rd-party applications)?

And, remember: I only ask for this because I care. Address Book, and all the other apps/issues I mentioned, are products and services I use daily and evangelize to others. I just want to love them a little bit more… or, at the very least, be made so that it was easy for other developers to extend them to do just that.

(Ed. note: This was the last of a several part series. See previous posts re: .Mac, Customer Lifecycle, Apple.com User Profiles, and iPhone/iPod/iTunes.)

iPhone/iPod

Apple must be inundated with idea after idea on how to improve or really make the iPhone a better product. But, I won’t lie; the iPhone is an awesome device. I had a series of disappointing Verizon phones (preceeded by an equally disappointing SprintPCS phone) over 3 years. No matter what glitches I’ve experienced with the iPhone (and there have been a couple doozies), I actually feel empowered with my phone now… rather than crippled or limited. Anywhere I go, I have access (even if occasionally slow via the EDGE network) to my email, maps for directions, and my full address book. Not to mention some great games and my Google Reader newsfeeds.

That said, there’s room for improvement. Particularly around syncing, which I mentioned earlier as a .Mac feature. I can understand .Mac-like sync not being a feature available to every user, as someone has to pay for server storage of all that information. The following suggestions, though, would apply for any iPhone and/or iPod user straight out of the box.

• Shortcut creation (iPhone)

  I can’t say I’m a giant fan of the touchscreen’s keyboard on the iPhone. While some know me for my sissy-soft hands, my iPhone knows me for a different digited issue: fat fingers. And fat fingers make it hard to type (particularly quickly) on a small keyboard. To make matters worse, Apple’s auto-correction software somehow manages to bungle both my regular English words and my old SMS shorthand. “MTG” (”meeting”) becomes “MTV,” “WFH” (”working from home”) becomes “WTH,” etc.

  Worse, the software doesn’t learn. No matter how many times I type “MTG,” it keeps on thinking I mean MTV. The “S” in SMS stands for “Short.” Why can’t I send short, shorthand MSGs (not MAGS) to others? I can appreciate Apple’s efforts to make the world a more formal, English-literate place. Most of us, though, aren’t sending TXTs to the CEO. Let us use our efficient little lingua franca, please. And, show us a little love by learning it over time… make that auto-correction start suggesting the words I use. Particularly, my email address. (And, please, please stop auto-capitalizing my email address as soon as I add the “@” symbol.)

  As it stands, I somewhat dread SMSing on the iPhone, as I know I’ll have to think just to send my note. That sounds like a Windows experience to me; I prefer the Mac-way of doing things, thank you.

• CoverFlow browsing (iPod… and should be an iPhone issue, too!)

  iTunes 7.x and Mac OS X Leopard recently incorporated CoverFlow into their browsing experience, which provides a visual, flip-book-like approach to perusing music and data libraries. It rocks. I was sold the minute I first played with it. (After all, who doesn’t remember their LP/CD covers when thinking about their favorite albums?) It is so, so, so much more engaging than scrolling through a 12-point text list.

  

  iTunes display for music on Mac (left) and iPod (right).

  Sadly, though, when I browse the music on my iPod in iTunes, I’m presented with an old-school 12-point text list of all my tracks. What happened? I was just flipping through this beautiful presentation of the limited selection of music on my Mac, and when I switch to the pimped-out, 80GB iPod, I get the limited, pre-iTunes 7.x experience. Any reason I can’t have the big boys’ experience while viewing my iPod’s content, too?

• Don’t cripple iPod functionality on the iPhone (iPhone)

  Manual music management on my iPods rock. The reason I use an iPod in the first place (these days, at least) is that I don’t have to keep my entire music library on my limited-space laptop drive. By manually copying and managing tracks to my iPod, I can keep them there, and keep my hard drive free for data and work.

  Unfortunately, the iPhone allows no such similar functionality. The only way to get music on the device is to sync playlists from my Mac to my iPhone. Delete the track off my Mac? Next sync, its getting wiped off my iPhone.

  To make annoying matters worse, the iPhone also doesn’t let me play my music stored on it when plugged into my Mac. Why? This totally baffles me. The iPhone says “iPod” right on the package, as well as on its Home screen button. It shows up in iTunes like an iPod.

  So why can’t I stash and play my music? This has effectively killed the “iPod” component of the iPhone for me… the only time I use my iPods for music is when I plug them into my many different Macs.

• Do not disconnect! (iPod)

  Really?! From the company that brought hot-swapping drives mainstream? To this day, I need to manually “eject” my iPod from my Mac, waiting tens of seconds (usually 6 tens, to be precise) for my iPod to tidy up and close shop. Usually, the reason I need to remove the iPod is that I’m dashing off to a meeting, and don’t want to lug the iPod, its cable, and its charger along.

  Call me naive, but I believe that Apple can provide a simple, elegant, and little-chance-of-harm means of disconnecting iPods by simply unplugging the device. What can I say? I dare to dream.

Like I said, the iPhone (and the iPod) rocks. Apple could totally ignore these issues, and I’ll keep using them just the same. Only thing, though, is that a little piece of me will die each time I do, knowing they could have done just a little bit better.

(Ed. note: This is one of a several part series, already including .Mac, Customer Lifecycle and Apple.com User Profiles coverage. Stay tuned tomorrow for my final post re: Address Book.)

Apple.com User Profiles

Before anyone goes and says there are currently user profiles on Apple.com, I’d ask you to find them within 5 clicks, or at any point in any of your online Apple.com experiences. One does exist… if you dive deep into the message board system. (Here’s my hidden Apple.com profile, for example.)

Why do I care? Last I checked, Apple fans are rabid; they love to argue about how superior OS X is to Vista, and how Mac users are smarter than Windows users. Apple runs commercials, in fact, about how much hipper, smarter, and creative Mac users are. Why not give them a means to show off their smarts and Apple’s wares? “Show and prove,” as we kids here say on the streets.

Particularly, I’m thinking of an Apple.com profile page… not a .Mac profile page. (We want more evangelistas, not less.) Tied to any Apple ID, the profile would let users add a tad more info than their name and homepage. I’d even recommend, at the very least, the following:

• My own avatar
  Some folks like to be known by their face, some a Spider-man logo, some an old ‘missing startup drive’ icon, rather than just a fixed palette of Apple-approved and Apple-supplied Mac icons. If you don’t want to be in the business of storing icons/photos/avatars, might I recommend Gravatars?

  

  This is the avatar I use on virtually every site except Apple’s.

• Visual representation of my current setup
  Macs are sexy computers. I’ve never been less excited about a Mac than looking at the current “Computer Model” info laid out in 11-point text on the current profile. At the least, provide the thumbnail images for the spectrum of machines and software I could have. (Hate to tell you, but I’ve still got an old Mac SE that I’d like to show off.) At best, let me upload/link to my photos of my setup.
• My Apps
  New Macs are great out of the box, particularly when including iLife. (You know what would make them better? A new version of HyperCard.) However, it seems unlikely that all us Mac users don’t add other software to the machine. And this software setup is invaluable to other users, particularly if the profile is of that of a well-known content creator (whether an artist, movie director, Simpsons writer, etc.). If a user could flag the software they use, a simple list could spur sales in the Apple Store and/or downloads in the Downloads section. Again, if you don’t mind me further suggesting, check out I Use This to see folks dedicated to helping people find what software other folks are using.
• Support Activity
  You currently have it… thanks! Might be nice to visually separate Questions from Posts, although this is already a somewhat confusing distinction.
• Community Ranking
  Mac users love to show off how much they know about their Macs. Currently, highly active users on Apple’s support site are shown with a “Status level” listed in text with tiny blue boxes. What’s the highest level? Is Level 5 good or bad? (I didn’t see a key/legend.) And might there be a clearer, more visually attractive means of representing achievement?
• Non-database presentation
  The current profile page looks like a dump… a database dump. Do users really need an “Avatar” and “Name” labels in front of rather obvious content? Consider treating user profiles with a similar design caliber as software profiles. Yes, all the data may sit in a database, but as a user, I don’t need to be reminded of that fact. There are countless other profiles available for reference to see what’s working everywhere else on the Web.
• Inherent affiliate linking
  I currently make a bit of money from iTunes affiliate links, and I’m pretty sure that 95-plus percent of iTunes users do not. For those who do (and rabidly work to promote our sites/pages as we’ll earn money), why not allow the ability to insert my affiliate code once (during profile setup) to apply across my entire profile? Again, it’s a small but vocal and viral audience; help those that will then want to help you.
• iTunes integration
  The iPod has transfixed the world’s population. You own the digital music space. Why not make it a bit more social a space? First, integrate Apple.com profiles within iTunes. Currently, contributing users (providing ratings, reviews, and iMixes) are treated tangentially by iTunes. Instead, display these new rich user profiles, which can then in turn feature:
  1. Recent Listening

     Last.fm and iLike have made their businesses on the back of iTunes’ Recently Played data feed. Seems pretty simple for y’all to easily include it here… with links to sample/buy the appropriate in tracks in iTunes.

     While you’re at it, can you open up the Apple TV to allow a similar feed for Recently Watched? I’ve wanted this from my TiVo for years. I like knowing how I spend/waste my time, and how my memory of what my favorite shows are match against what I really spend my time watching.

  2. Widget integration
     Your current My iTunes widgets offer a taste of a user’s iTunes activity beyond listening. Why not get more of your widgets auto-installed by including them on profile pages as soon as a user enables the functionality (with due notification, of course)?
  3. Lists
     iTunes’ iMixes functionality appears to still be popular… no surprise. People love to compile Top 10 lists, and particularly for music. By including the iMixes a user creates, a viewer has a better sense of each user’s personality.
• My First Mac
  I would be surprised if any Apple user can’t remember their first experience with their own Mac. Again, we’re a vocal bunch, and we like to share their experiences and knowledge. Why not facilitate a means for users to enter their first experience? Could make for some interesting case studies (should you ever be running short), and it also would allow long-time users to show off their history in the Mac/Apple field.

Don’t get me wrong. I know that few folks run around spelunking for user profiles to read. But when they do encounter them (as they’re spawned in different places around your site and products… and could be in many more places), Apple has an opportunity to show the diversity and excitement their products embody. A resource like that can reduce customer support costs (as I can now find a real person with a similar setup as my own), aid in content discovery (find out what your friends are listening to and/or what software they’re using), and drive sales (if I can get paid to promote Apple products, I will be driving folks to “my” Apple Store).

(Ed. note: This is one of a several part series, already including .Mac and Customer Lifecycle coverage. Stay tuned tomorrow for iPhone/iPod/iTunes and January 2nd for Address Book.)