If This Then That: How To Automate Your Web
There's a cool new web application that you may want to check out. It's called "If This Then That", and it lets you connect your social media and web application accounts and create "triggers" that will automatically do things for you. The possibilities are endless, you can basically do anything with this tool. Like, for example: You can set up an auto-response when you get a new follower on Twitter. You can automatically email yourself when the weather forecast says it's going to rain. And you can automatically move files between different services including DropBox, YouTube, and Photo sharing services...
It's kind of hard to explain, it's probably best to just try it yourself. The website is http://ifttt.com. Have fun! And feel free to ask me questions in the comments if you need help figuring it out.
User-configurable Keyboard Shortcuts
Probably a firefox extension or chrome plugin, but also a web directory where visitors can install greasemonkey scripts that will add keyboard shortcut functionality to various apps. The full add-on will be promoted to be able to notify you of configuration change possibilities and specific website productivity tips, all based on the current URL in view. Users will be able to change/add/remove keyboard shortcuts for every URL.
Challenges:
- compatibility
- change monitoring
- conflict resolution
3 Weeks with iPhone 3G
I slept overnight outside the Palo Alto Apple Store to get this White 16GB iPhone on the first day. I immediately fell in love with the new physical design - the new iPhone feels so much nicer in my hands than the original iPhone. In fact, I've been using this new iPhone mostly without a case, leaving it naked in my otherwise empty left jeans pocket. I am using a screen protection film though.
GPS is really nice to have. It's made the Google Maps application much more useful already, and I hear rumors of advanced navigation features in an upcoming iPhone update.
3G coverage is spotty, so it hasn't been quite the revolution I was hoping for, but nonetheless an improvement, and quite speedy in some places.
The App Store is an interesting development too. I wish I had Installer.app still, but there are a lot of decent apps coming out for free in the App Store, including one from WordPress which I'm using right now to write this post.
Anyway, I heartily recommend the new iPhone to almost everyone... You should get one today!
