Following up on letting iPhone apps run my life

A week ago, I wrote a story about a morning and afternoon I spent in Seattle letting iPhone applications control my day.

A screenshot from the iPhone application Twitterific. Last week, I hadn't been able to figure out how to get Twitterific to work properly, nor did I know there was a way to take screenshots. Now I know how to do both.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

And while I vouched for the concept of turning my life over to the various apps--a couple for finding restaurants, one for finding music, one for playing Internet radio, one for AOL Instant Messenger, and so on--I also said that I'd had some problems with several of them.

I also got a lot of feedback from readers who pointed out that I hadn't needed to take photographs of the apps because there is a way to take screenshots directly off the iPhone. Simply clicking on the phone's home button and its power button simultaneously takes a perfect screenshot.

So, in the interest of being fair to the apps that I couldn't figure out, I decided to try them again once I was back home to see if I could figure them out or whether they were beyond that.

It turns out, of course, that it was basically user error. After spending a little more time with each of the apps I got them all working, though, in my defense, I think there were definitely some things about the apps' interfaces in each case that were extremely unintuitive.

First off is Urbanspoon, an app designed to help you find restaurants wherever you are that meet several criteria: neighborhood, type of cuisine, and pricing. It's designed with sort of a slot machine interface where you can "shake" it and each column spins and spins, finally resolving to a single suggestion.

What I'd not understood was how to get the app to give me a suggestion based on my specific criteria. Every time I chose to "shake" it, it spun all three of the wheels and gave me a totally random suggestion. If I wanted Japanese food, for example, it might give me Chinese instead.

Frustrated, I had finally given up and used another restaurant suggestion app instead.

To use the Urbanspoon app as I had wanted to originally, it is necessary to click on the lock icons below the columns for neighborhood, cuisine, and price.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

But now, I discovered that there is, in fact, a way to get it to do what I wanted, something I admit I should have been able to figure out before.

Below each column there's a small lock icon. It turns out that clicking on a lock sets that column in stone. So, by setting my criteria for each category, then clicking on each of the locks, and finally "shaking" it, it does indeed present suggestions based on my needs.

Next up on my list of apps I couldn't get working properly was Twitterific, an iPhone Twitter app.

I had had problems getting Twitterific to let me enter my Twitter account information after I'd inadvertently entered it incorrectly the first time. It asked me to enter it again, but I was stumped trying to figure out how to do so.

And, again, it turns out there was an easy solution, and one I missed most likely because I was in a hurry and wasn't thinking analytically. The answer was to click on the little wrench icon at the bottom of the Twitterific screen, which brings up the account information screen. I re-entered it there and sure enough, the app started working right away.

While I was in Seattle, I had abandoned Twitterific in favor of another app, called Twitterlator. But now I've started using one called Twinkle, and it seems even better because it offers more features, including the ability to view tweets from people in your immediate vicinity.

I'd also written that the tip calculation app I'd downloaded--CheckPlease--didn't look in any way like the screenshot presented on Apple's App Store. In fact, it had a very unattractive interface though it was simple to use.

The updated CheckPlease iPhone app is much more elegant than the version I downloaded originally.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

But a couple of days ago, my iPhone alerted me to the fact that there was an update available for CheckPlease. When I downloaded it, there was the interface that the App Store had originally promised. And indeed, it is now much better, more elegant, and more useful. Instead of unattractive sliders and results that give you a total restaurant check but not the specific tip amount, it now has a nice system with punch keys for entering the amount of the bill, a click wheel for the tip amount, and it presents the subtotal for the tip and the total amount for each person.

Much better, for sure.

In the end, then, I have to give props to the designers of each of the apps I'd said I had problems with. I suppose I would encourage them to make their interfaces a tad more intuitive or to include helpful directions. But then again, I have to also take some responsibility for not employing analytical skills to solve the issues I was having when I was having them.

Either way, it's nice to see them working properly now. Which, ultimately, reinforces my notion that spending a day letting iPhone apps run my life was a worthwhile and fun experiment.

[Seaspray0]

Good, you followed up. Now, how about trying this same experiment with other smart phones. I'd like to know how twitter compares against other apps on other phones as well. Are there more or less apps available? How about an app that will link to GPS and show where you are on a map (I'd find that one useful)? How's the reception? Don't tell me cnet is only interested in doing iphone stories; there's more than one smartphone out there. You owe it to your readers to compare them and the apps that run on them.

[tekwiz4u]

No need to do other phones. Other phones suck compared to the iphone. So suck it up.

[Fil0403]

@ tekwiz4u: No need to do other phones indeed. iPhone is the one that needs a distraction from all the 3G problems. So suck it up doubled.

[Mark Molloy]

Friend,
Learn a lesson. It used to be don't speak before you think, now should be don't write. Particularly when you set yourself up to be a disseminator of knowledge. I hope that no one made any decisions on your half-baked reviews.
m

[sj10689]

Reply to Mark Molloy:

In last week's article, the author was clearly reviewing a day when he decided that he try applications on the iPhone; his skepticism of some of the mechanisms would not encourage too many people to try these apps (except for those who may want to give them a test run.) At least give him credit for following up on last week's adventure, which I found amusing and insightful, as did many other readers.

I understand your point and all, but you don't have to be so condescending about it. This author is not writing a REVIEW of iPhone apps. (keyword: REVIEW) In fact, when this website introduces expert reviews, you'll find time and time again that updates to the review have to be made, usually not in favor of the corresponding device. But in the case with Daniel Terdiman's article, his second look at iPhone apps turned out to be more positive than his first. Risk management suggests that this is a good thing.

Mark Molloy, my friend, learn a lesson. And be grateful that the author is at least giving readers an opportunity to read his journal entries (that's what they are) based on his musings over the iPhone apps. Have yourself a margarita, and a very nice day; relax a little

[sj10689]

Reply to Mark Molloy:

In last week's article, the author was clearly reviewing a day when he decided that he try applications on the iPhone; his skepticism of some of the mechanisms would not encourage too many people to try these apps (except for those who may want to give them a test run.) At least give him credit for following up on last week's adventure, which I found amusing and insightful, as did many other readers.

I understand your point and all, but you don't have to be so condescending about it. This author is not writing a REVIEW of iPhone apps. (keyword: REVIEW) In fact, when this website introduces expert reviews, you'll find time and time again that updates to the review have to be made, usually not in favor of the corresponding device. But in the case with Daniel Terdiman's article, his second look at iPhone apps turned out to be more positive than his first. Risk management suggests that this is a good thing.

Mark Molloy, my friend, learn a lesson. And be grateful that the author is at least giving readers an opportunity to read his journal entries (that's what they are) based on his musings over the iPhone apps. Have yourself a margarita, and a very nice day; relax a little

[Thomas, David]

Keep up the good work. You might just find yourself the perfect person to continue real world reviews for all such devices, and receive a lot of respect, and credence as a result.

I for one, look forward to more similar experiments, and subsequent articles.

[debaser123]

I never read your first post, and I probably never will. But kudos for being honest, and having the balls to say you had a mistake. Unlike, Mr. Mark Malloy, I recognize that a blog, by definition, is a log of someone's thought on a given subject, more like a first person editorial, etc. etc. Keep doing what you're doing, and don't worry about guys like Mark -- they're everywhere you look.

[alittlespice]

I might disagree with Mark Malloy too...except this is the same idiot reporter who, on last year's "Road Trip," where the object was to review various gadgets for a widely read series of CNET articles, couldn't get the Garmin Nuvi GPS unit working because he didn't realize that you had to put up the antenna. And who published an entire story about people on London subways hooking up for anonymous sex via celphone texting ("toothing"), that turned out to be completely false, because he fell for a hoax. I could go on, there's plenty more; the point is, there's a pattern of poor, sloppy reportage here, not just in his blog, but in what he passes off as "journalism."

[sj10689]

I own a Garmin Nuvi 200, and it doesn't have an antenna. In the case of the Nuvi 350, the antenna might be camouflaged with the device, so as to hide from plain sight

[sj10689]

I own a Garmin Nuvi 200, and it doesn't have an antenna. In the case of the Nuvi 350, the antenna might be camouflaged with the device, so as to hide from plain sight

[sj10689]

I own a Garmin Nuvi 200, and it doesn't have an antenna. In the case of the Nuvi 350, the antenna might be camouflaged with the device, so as to hide from plain sight

But he should have read the owner's manual, though

[Fil0403]

And this concludes this week's lesson on how to put aside your professionalism and suck up to Apple fanboys so you stop receiving hate-mail. Brought to you by CNET.
I do have to say that I find it pretty amusing how when there is a problem with anything remotely related to Windows, the possibility of being the user's fault is simply ruled out from the beginning, with all the blame going immediately and directly to that OS that never works (read "Windows") and to that company that just sucks (read "Microsoft"), while when the problem is remotely related to anything from Apple, it must (has to) be the user's fault because everybody knows Apple software and hardware is perfect, and the same can be said to every single piece of software developed for Apple products. So you just keep re-writing your article every week until it works like you want to (i.e. until you please the Apple community and stop receiving hate-mail). And let's not mention the proportion Apple users / Apple coverage by CNET, because it is at least 1/1000. Does CNET even know there are tech companies besides Apple and electronic devices besides the iPhone (including true 3G smartphones with applications too)?
C'mon CNET, at least change your name to "AppleFanboy.com", at least it's more accurate.