Pro Bowl Excitement

January 23, 2012

I enjoy football, but somehow I’ve never watched a Pro Bowl. No one else really seems to pay attention to it. There’s not a lot of “water-cooler” talk after the game so I maybe that has something to do with it. I was talking to a friend about it today. We weren’t even sure exactly when it is this year (it’s this Sunday) or where (back in Hawaii). But I also stumbled across some of the rule changes that only apply to the Pro Bowl to make it more exciting safer. Here are some of those rules:

  • No motion or shifting by the offense
  • Offense must have a tight end in all formations
  • Offense can’t have 3 receivers on a side
  • Intentional grounding is legal
  • Defense must run a 4-3 at all times
  • No press coverage except inside the 5 yard line
  • No blitz
  • Not allowed to rush a Punt, PAT or FG attempt

Sounds riveting. While I understand the need to protect the players, if you’re going to add rules why not add some rules to make it more exciting? If not, just make it a game of flag football and be done with it.

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iOS Release / Mobile Safari Version Table

January 9, 2012

UPDATE: New version of this table available here: iOS Releases | Mobile Safari Versions | Supported Devices

Earlier today I was trying to use some web logs to get a sense of iOS adoption rate. I was looking at the version of Mobile Safari being used by requesting browsers, but had no idea which version of Mobile Safari went with which release of iOS and somehow Google was of no help. So I made a list. Then I decided someone else might find this information useful someday too, so I made assembled it as a blog post. And for good measure I added some stuff about iOS release dates, which of those releases is supported on various iOS devices, and some other assorted goodies. I’m seem to always be referring to this wikipedia article, but it’s a bit overkill. This is mostly all I need.

By the way, if anyone knows what version of Mobile Safari was on iOS version 1.0 – 1.1.5, let me know and I’ll update the table. Although surely no one is still using that.

iOS Release History, Supported Devices

iOS Version Release iPhone iPod 1G iPhone 3G iPod 2G iPhone 3GS iPod 3G iPad iPhone 4 iPod 4G iPad 2 iPhone 4S iPod 4G (2011) Mobile Safari Version
5.0.1 11/10/11 06/19/09 09/01/10 – 09/09/09 03/02/11 – 04/03/10 06/21/10 09/08/10 03/11/11 10/12/11 10/12/11 7534.48.3
5.0 10/12/11
4.3.5 07/25/11 6533.18.5
4.3.4 07/15/11
4.3.3 05/04/11
4.3.2 04/14/11
4.3.1 03/25/11
4.3 03/09/11
4.2.10 07/25/11
4.2.9 07/15/11
4.2.8 05/04/11
4.2.7 04/14/11
4.2.6 02/10/11
4.2.5 02/07/11
4.2.1 11/22/10 06/04/10 – 07/11/08 09/01/10 – 09/09/08
4.2 N/A
4.1 09/08/10 6531.22.7
4.0.2 08/11/10
4.0.1 07/15/10
4.0 06/21/10
3.2.2 08/11/10 531.21.10
3.2.1 07/15/10
3.2 04/03/10
3.1.3 02/02/10 07/11/08 – 06/29/07 09/08/08 – 09/14/07 528.16
3.1.2 10/08/09
3.1.1 09/09/09
3.1 09/09/09
3.0.1 07/31/09
3.0 06/17/09
2.2.1 01/27/09 525.18.1
2.2 11/21/08 525.20
2.1.1 09/09/08
2.1 09/09/08
2.0.2 08/18/08
2.0.1 08/04/08
2.0 07/11/08
1.1.5 07/15/08 ?
1.1.4 02/26/08
1.1.3 01/15/08
1.1.2 11/12/07
1.1.1 09/27/07
1.1 09/14/07
1.0.2 08/21/07
1.0.1 07/31/07
1.0 06/29/07
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Every 90 seconds

January 6, 2012

The What’s New page on AppShopper sort of blows my mind, for a couple reasons.

First, just the sheer quantity of new apps posted to the app store every day. I was flipping through the new apps, as I’m wont to do from time to time, and noticed that the oldest app on the first page was only 49 minutes old. There are 20 apps on each page and these are all new releases. No updates. All version 1.0 apps. 49 minutes, 20 new apps. I did a little more browsing and realized that 1,126 apps (just over 56 pages on AppShopper) had been posted to the App Store in the last 24 hours. Thinking maybe that was an anomaly, I checked the previous days additions: 1,085 new apps.

Because I’m lazy I’m going to say that two days worth of data is enough to conclude the iOS app market is growing by roughly 1,000 apps per day. There are currently 530,652 apps on the App Store and that number is increases by one roughly every 90 seconds. If you could somehow manage to download an app every second, it would take you a little more than 6 days to download every one, during which time another 6,145 apps would appear on the App Store.

Given the huge number of new apps released every day, how in the world are you supposed to get your app noticed? I’m not even going to try and get into that right now. But it probably doesn’t hurt if your app is actually good, which leads me to the next point.

I know that developing is hard and it can be tempting to take shortcuts… Look, I don’t want to be mean, but skimming through some of these apps, just, damn. Here’s an assortment of some of the apps that were released over the last 24 hours.

gocart race
gocart race

The first app I stumbled across was gocart race. What is going on here? Maybe it’s just me, but some of the detail on the “go carts” appears to be missing. And everywhere else for that matter. The red rectangle seems to be winning. Hey maybe it’s fun, but there is nothing here that’s makes me want to find out. Compare this to another $0.99 app: Real Racing 2 and tell me which you’d be more likely to spend your hard earned $0.99 on.

Rapid finger
Rapid finger

Two others that jumped out at me were Rapid finger and Beauty Scan!. But not in a good way. Rapid finger tests how fast you can press a button. That’s it. No wait, you can press a button repeatedly and it’ll tell you how many taps per minute you averaged. On the bright side, it’s free.

Beauty Scan!
Beauty Scan!

Beauty Scan! (exclamation point), however, is not. As near as I can tell, it will take your picture and put it in this mirror thingy. There’s only the one screen shot, so I can’t say for certain and it would cost me $0.99 to find out. This app is brought to you by the makers of Ugly Scan! (another exclamation point!) which includes this phrase in the app description: “Trick your friends by taking there picture and scanning their face if there ugly or not!”. That’s some good grammar right they’re!

MulThis
MulThis

MulThis might also be good, actually probably the most useful of the bunch. I have a soft spot for education apps because they’re at least trying to serve a greater purpose, but this is just really hard to look at without wanting to stab something.

Panties Detector (FREE) will determine what color panties the detectee is wearing when they place their (not there) finger on the scanner. They also make Cooties Detector (FREE) and Mood Detector (FREE). Rounding out the suite is Poop Analyzer (FREE). These are free, but if the ads are somehow the only thing you find annoying about them, you can pay $0.99 for ad free versions of each.

Lastly there was the Tim Tebowâ„¢ app. A bunch of Tim Tebow wallpapers. But look again at the name of this app. It’s trademarked! The developers somehow managed to trademark the name Tim Tebow. One has to wonder if the real Tim Tebow has been informed and what sort of deal he has struck with the developers to allow him to keep using his name.

I could keep going. But I won’t. There’s a metric buttload of new apps being released each day but how many of those qualify as great or even good apps? Of course, creating a great app doesn’t guarantee success, though it surely helps (someone tell me that’s true, please). Then again, I’ve seen some really mediocre apps in various top 200 lists, so marketing clearly plays a big, possibly bigger, role than quality. But why make the marketing guys do all the work? Take a little extra time to add that extra bit of functionality and polish that’s going to make your app stand out from the rest. In a good way.

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Makeover

January 6, 2012

Sitting here staring at my blog. It really needs a makeover. It’s not horrible. It’s a fairly clean layout, which I like, but the pieces don’t quite fit together right. Anyone out there want to point me to some nice WordPress themes I can look at for inspiration? Better yet, someone want to redesign my site for me?!

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Stupid Words

January 4, 2012

“Some people have a way with words… others… not have way.” – Steve Martin

About six years ago I wrote a post that was a little about high school, and a little about celebrity and I recently re-read it after one of the subjects of said post stumbled upon it. In re-reading it, it doesn’t appear to cast anyone in a favorable light. I know that I intended it to be mostly humorous, and thought I’d written it in such a way as to make clear that I was poking fun, but it doesn’t come off that way at all. So, I have a blog, let me clear up a couple of things.

First, Mike is the guy that read the post and apologized if his actions in high school had affected me in any negative way. You see I’d written about how high school had “organized us into our proper social caste”. I don’t blame Mike, for this. After all I could have reached out myself, but high school being what is was, and probably always will be, kids just fell into certain groups. Peer pressure or what have you sort of reinforces those groups. That’s just what happens, especially when we’re younger. I’ve experienced it firsthand and now that I’m older seen it happen with my daughter and her friends. So, no Mike, you didn’t affect me negatively. But you were a pretty bad joke teller 🙂

The other part of that post was about Mike’s brother, Butch. You may have heard of him, or if not you’ve probably heard of his shows, especially if you have kids. The Fairly Oddparents, Danny Phantom, or T.U.F.F. Puppy ring a bell? He created all of those. How awesome is that? So I wrote this post and you can see bits and pieces of how impressed I am for Butch’s accomplishments and work ethics peeking through when I talk about his dedication to a dream. But then I ruined it with these silly pokes at him for not answering an email. I didn’t really expect a reply from Butch, though I will admit that would have been pretty cool. Anyway, let me go back and pick out the pieces that were important:

First off, I didn’t know the guy that well. He was the older brother of a good friend and so that was my relationship to him. But the thing is, it seemed like every time I was over to their house he was drawing. He was focused on what he wanted and he made it happen. And remember this was 1982 we’re talking about. And his dream probably started well before that. Butch had other accomplishments prior to The Fairly Oddparents, but you could argue that that show was what really put him on the map so to speak. Think about that for a minute. He dedicated himself to a goal for over 20 years! Yet another example that if you put you mind to something, and pay your dues, you can reach whatever goals you have for yourself provided that you’re truly dedicated to it. Six years ago I missed an opportunity to share that message because I was being pissy about an email and that’s a shame, because it was an opportunity to point to a real person who dreamed big and made it happen.

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