iPad

Loopimal, Music, Animation, and Sequencing for Your Kids.

I came across this video this morning on Vimeo for Lucas Zanotto‘s game Loopimal and fell in love with the nice blend of simple animation, live action, and fun music. After watching the film, I jumped over to his website, then the appstore to check out the actual game. I know this was deigned for kids, but after getting Loopimal and spending some time with it, I’m kind of hooked. It’s actually a blast to play with and kind of addictive.

Loopimal is designed to be your child’s first entry into the world of computer sequencing. Using a series of animations which are linked to sound effects you create animation sequences for different animals. The game uses intuitive gestures, that create loops of rhythms, melodies and movements that are endless. This is so simple and so fun.

Mangroovv.

I use my iPad for more general computing than any of my other hardware. The convenience of a tablet simply fits within my workflow. One of the things That I use the tablet for is as a teleprompter. The only problem is finding a way to place the tablet at eye level for the subject while shooting. Because of this I am always looking for a tablet stand that is adjustable, and will work without placing it on a table or other surface.

Designed by Armin Muller, and Kai Trebesius in Hamburg Germany, Mangroovv is making a tablet stand that is simple, functional, and well designed. More importantly it is a free standing device that adjusts from sitting to standing height making it perfect for any occasion where you need both hands and a table stand won’t do. Mangroove weighs in at a light 1.8 pounds, the extendable feet automatically deploy allowing it to rest on a variety of surfaces, and collapsing when you pick it up making it ultra portable. The rotating ball head allow you to position your tablet at any angle, and there is no locking mechanism needed to hold your tablet in place.

I’m sold. This is a really well designed functional stand that I know I’ll be using on a regular basis.

Minimalist Design in the Lampion Vacuum Amp For Your iPad.

Danish audio maker Låmpion has released a new tube amplifier designed by Stefan Radev. The minimalist tube amplifier is one stylish piece of hardware with a clean aesthetic blending aluminum, wood, and glass to create a clean, simple, functional design. The amp is compatible with both Apple and Android devices and can be used with stand alone audio equipment as well.

There is something timeless about the look of this object, and it feels like the design team really took into account how the amp will look when paired with an iPhone or an iPad. The rounded edges and materials mirror what is going on with the Apple products so well, and the look of the build quality screams premium audio. The design team applied a well balanced choice of proportions, materials, and accents to create the clean look of this amplifier without introducing to much technological clutter.

Beyond the look, this amp is solid on specs as well featuring two twenty watt custom tube driven amps, with a frequency response of 5Hz to 50Khz, multiple inputs ranging from RCA output, micro USB input, WiFi audio, an Apple Lighting dock connector, 1/4 inch headphone jack as well as mini jacks.

No word on pricing and availability, but I suspect this will be Europe only and carry a hefty price tag when it’s all said and done.

WordPress Are You Listening? Fix Your iOS Experience.

I just spent 30 or so minutes composing a post using the WordPress App for iOS on my iPad. As I was wrapping up I began to insert images into the post only to have about half of them fail. Apparently the latest update to the app has broken the insert image feature. If you select more than two, it will fail to upload all of them to the WordPress servers. Along with this, the app no longer posts to Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn.

I have been a WordPress user for six years now, and for the most part a huge fan. When working correctly it is a powerful content management tool, that is far more robust than Blogger, or SquareSpace in my opinion. Note that I said “When working correctly”. WordPress if you are listening, you need to take note of the following constructive criticism.

About a week ago WordPress updated its desktop authoring environment with a new simplified editor. As the screen takes what seems like days to load yu are greeted with the juvenile “Beep, beep, boop” phrase. If and when the page finally loads, there are far fewer options than the old editor, a confusing UI, and a slightly cleaner look. WordPress must know that they have issues, because in the upper right corner of the screen they have a link that takes you back to the classic editing environment, which I have done every day since they rolled out the new set up. This isn’t such a big deal for me, well not a big deal until they get rid of the classic editor and force us to use the new one. At that point I’ll probably drop WordPress and move on. Yes that is how much I dislike it.

I chose WordPress because it was billed as a professional tool. Because 6 years ago and earlier it had recieved so much good press and reviews from people y that used it daily, and because even businesses were using it do to the robust tool set and depth of professional themes. The latest update feels like they have rolled it back to amature hour. I get ease of use. I get clean simple design. I get streamlined UI. What I don’t get, is “Beep, beep, boop” and the removal or hiding of tool sets.

Now lets talk iOS.

WordPress for the iPad is a joke. There is no other way to say it. It’s horrible. The app is so bad that with each new update they break something new. In the latest version they broke image uploads, social media hooks, spell check, categories, and more. They failed to fix the ability to embed video from Vimeo, or YouTube. With each update the iOS app has remained unstable, buggy, and feature broken. With each update WordPress says it has done “Bug Fixes”, but with each apparent fix, they have introduced even more.

WordPress in Safari, or Chrome on iOS is no better. The pages do not load correctly, even when you “Request Desktop Site” in Chrome. The editor simply doesn’t load correctly. Simple things like scrolling, and selecting don’t work. Embedding images and video is difficult, and the overall experience is just goofed. Even simple acts like selecting a line of text don’t work well. It’s so bad that if I have to use my iPad, i now have a multi-step workflow that involves drafts, and multiple apps.

The first step is to write all the text out in the Pages and copy the text.

Step two, go to the WordPress app, create a new post and paste.

Step three, save the draft.

Step four go to Safari and open the draft.

Step five embed video and save the draft.

Step six, go back to WordPress, open the draft, embed any images one at a time.

Step seven, select the image tag, cut, go to the insert point I want the image to appear and paste. (Yes the iOS app doesn’t embed images at the place where your cursor is. It embeds everything at the bottom of the post. Another fix needed) Save the draft.

Step eight. Launch Chrome, and spell check. Save the draft.

Step nine launch Safari, open the draft, and publish.

WordPress are you listening. This is an excercise in frustration. You need to step it up and fix your product. Fix it, test it, and then roll it out. Right now it feels like your dev team is just throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks.