Ever try to play a itunes song outside of itunes? Oh, you can’t. Ever want to send an itunes song to a friend to check out? Oh, you can’t. Ever want to convert a itunes song to mp3? Oh, you can’t. Ever want your audio in higher quality? Nope.

Amazon MP3. Still one click to buy and add to itunes. MP3 Format. 256 kbps. DRM Free. Oh, and cheaper than itunes.

So I’ve installed the iphone 2.0 software (on my non 3G iphone, for now) and have some thoughts about the iphone apps and the app store.

I think that while the app store is going to be the defacto hub for distributing apps for the majority, it has some downs.

First, as the number of apps continue to grow, the app store just seems awkward for navigating and finding new apps. Also it’s becoming increasingly hard to tell the crap from the good, with the only aid being the marginally helpful user reviews. I think the blogosphere and word of mouth are going to play a huge role in the success of iphone apps. Seeing and hearing how an app has been useful for someone else is so much more credible when trying to decide what to invest time in installing and trying out.

Second, I have a hard time seeing myself paying for any iphone app, ever. The only exception is perhaps something that I’m already invested in. Are iPhone apps just supporting cast members? I vote yes for a couple reasons. I think the greatest value of a mobile app is the greater accessibility that comes with mobility, and it’s just not worth $10, especially when there are iphone web interfaces and even more so once the jailbreaked installers take off. Also, if I were a software developer, why would I want to limit my audience to only iphone customers? I think these factors are contributing to why you see many more “iphone versions” of apps and iphone interfaces for existing apps, than pure iphone-only apps. I’d put money on the iphone app market continuing in that direction.

I like having my twitter on my website. I use the standard supplied twitter javascript badge code to do this. One thing I don’t like about it is that it doesn’t create html links from the links in the tweet. So took a minute and made one that does.

Everybody stand back. I know regular expressions (although it’s just a baby one). It could also be improved to be much more flexible (https, not relinking already linked urls, etc), but it’s simple and working for my cases for now.

Here is the updated blogger.js file, just download it, upload it to your web space, and use it instead of http://twitter.com/javascripts/blogger.js

Links in your twitter badge now are clickable. Neato.

Awesome.

vs

Goodbye vienna, hello netnewswire

I might be way late to the game, but here’s why I switched:

While both apps are free and have good user interfaces, NetNewsWire syncs my news and blog feeds with an online account (also free), so once I read something at work, on my phone, or on my laptop at home, I never see the same item twice. Awesome. They also have a nice iphone interface for reading on the go.

Theres a more detailed comparison on the unofficial apple weblog, but the syncing seals the deal for me. Get it here.

thumbs up:

• autosoap
• ny chedder kettle chips in my lunch
• portland (and its public transportation)
• refactoring your rails app presentation content
• starcraft (anyone want a game?)

thumbs down:

• slower than slow wifi (how much are we paying?)
• having to pass presentation materials around on usb drives
• asking questions by shouting (can we get something better? We’re programmers right?)
• presentation skills at #railsconf
• AIR presentation – I’m here to learn about Rails, not flex.

Lately I’ve been really getting into the merlin show . I’m only caught up to about episode 11 of 20, but if I had to sum up what I’ve seen so far, it’s sort of a mixture of GTD tips and interviews with musicians and engineers about issues surrounding human interaction and how technology shapes our communication and communities. So far I’ve found it both educational and intellectually stimulating. You should check it out.