I'm proud to publicly announce my first speaking opportunity of 2012. I'll be speaking at MDevCon in Amsterdam this year on March 10th. This will be my first trip to Amsterdam and I'm incredibly excited to have the opportunity. I'm so excited, actually, that I'll be staying in the city for several days after the conference to hang out in Appsterdam and visit. When I know exactly which days I'll be in the city, I'll let you know.
I have one other conference that I've already agreed to speak at this year, but that one hasn't been publicly announced yet, so I can't spill the beans quite yet, but I'm equally excited about that one.
Friday, December 30, 2011
iPhone 5 is still newsworthy
Expectations of iPhone 5 were great but after releasing iPhone 4S the situation has calmed down and users were satisfied. Although imaginations about the dream phone was not unrealistic at all, because it was even designed when it was scrapped.
As for now, a new round of iPhone 5 rumors has begun. Some rumors say that iPhone5 will be launched in the fall 2012, similar release season of the iPhone 4S this year. It is said that Apple is planning to use a rubber or plastic metal to be built into the new iPhone case. Most probably this material will be used as a bezel surrounding in front of the phone, just like iPhone 3 GS bezel. It has to serve two purposes, first is to join the glass iPhone face with a new aluminum back plate; another reason is to cover a redesigned antenna system that surrounds the gadget, allowing the company to build the rear case out of aluminum without using a large plastic insert above the antennas.
In a word, according to the rumors, iPhone 5 will be redesigned completely, unlikely to the current iPhone 4S , which features the same iPhone 4 design. As for other characteristics of the gadget, we should wait other rumors before anything is said or done officially.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Treadmill Desk Update
I'm coming up on the end of my second week using my treadmill desk, albeit two relatively quiet work weeks thanks to the holidays. I haven't put together the plans yet for those who might be interested in building a similar one, but the desk does seem to be holding up well. It's still very sturdy and has been working great for me.
After a really great first day where I put in over nine miles, my daily averages have backed off a bit to more in the 6-7 mile range and I'm averaging about 800 calories a day burned according to the treadmill. It seems that 1.6 MPH is my sweet spot for being able to type and mouse, though I sometimes go a little slower if I'm tired. I also usually start the morning at about 1.3 MPH, but after about 15 minutes, I'm usually up to 1.6.
I'm not finding it difficult to work for the most part. In fact, often I feel more alert and able to deal with complex problems. However, late in the day, I often feel just the opposite. I start to get fatigued, and when I do, then I often find that a difficult problem requires me to go over to my sitting desk or else needs to be pushed off until the next morning when I'm fresh. I suspect that this problem will go away as I continue to get used to it and am able to walk longer.
I currently spend about 4 hours walking, another 1-2 standing at my new desk, and the rest of my workday right now is at my old sitting desk. My goal is to get up to at least 8 hours of walking, but I'm really happy with this so far. It's not hard to do. There's no motivation for me to find. It's just part of my routine. When I go to my office, I start the treadmill. Easy-peazy.
I'm walking slow enough that I'm not experiencing much in the way of muscle soreness. A tiny bit in my calf last week, but none this week. There are some other problems that go along with the treadmill desk, however. First and foremost, my feet start to hurt something fierce by the end of the day. This week was better than last, and I suspect in a few weeks it will be a non-issue. A lot of it, admittedly, was poor shoe choice. More on that later.
Another problem with spending this amount of time moving is the potential for chafing and rashes. It goes away relatively quickly if you're smart enough to wear appropriate clothing, which I wasn't at first. If you experience chafing, here's two words to remember: coconut oil. Yep, the kind you buy for cooking. It's a solid at room temperature, but will turn into liquid from the heat of your hands. It's magic for irritated skin and it's also a lubricant. It's better than any lotion or salve I've ever tried.
I close my office door and open the window while I'm working, even though it's winter and I wear shorts and a t-shirt while working. Even at that, I'm a little warm, but I'm a warm person in general, always have been. I haven't broken out my winter jacket yet this year, so your experience might be different. Nobody I've talked to has mentioned being this warm, so it might just be me.
This one's important. Get some good walking shoes. Don't wear your existing sneakers or shoes, or worse, don't be stupid and go barefoot or wear sandals, crocs or whatever shoes happen to be closest to you. Good shoes, designed for walking, fitted by somebody who knows WTF they are doing. Four or more hours of walking is a lot of steps you're taking each day. Your feet will thank you.
So, the big question people probably want to know is: Have I lost weight?
It's really too early to tell. The scale says I've lost between two and four pounds, but honestly, my weight can fluctuate more than that just from water weight over the course of a single day. I might have lost nothing, or I might have lost more than that. I need more data points before I can form any conclusions. But, I suspect I have lost some. Even with a holiday party last weekend, I've been eating less than normal. I'm not sure if it's psychological or physiological, but I'm hungry less, and when I do eat, I'm tending to eat less and to eat healthier. I also haven't been tempted by my personal demon, the midnight snack. Well, more like the 2:30am-up-late-coding snack. Part of that may simply be that I'm too tired to work until 2:30am these days, though.
Overall, I'm declaring the experiment a success already. I'm able to work just as well walking as I am sitting except when I get fatigued, I'm burning calories while I work, and am just generally feeling better than I have in a long time.
After a really great first day where I put in over nine miles, my daily averages have backed off a bit to more in the 6-7 mile range and I'm averaging about 800 calories a day burned according to the treadmill. It seems that 1.6 MPH is my sweet spot for being able to type and mouse, though I sometimes go a little slower if I'm tired. I also usually start the morning at about 1.3 MPH, but after about 15 minutes, I'm usually up to 1.6.
I'm not finding it difficult to work for the most part. In fact, often I feel more alert and able to deal with complex problems. However, late in the day, I often feel just the opposite. I start to get fatigued, and when I do, then I often find that a difficult problem requires me to go over to my sitting desk or else needs to be pushed off until the next morning when I'm fresh. I suspect that this problem will go away as I continue to get used to it and am able to walk longer.
I currently spend about 4 hours walking, another 1-2 standing at my new desk, and the rest of my workday right now is at my old sitting desk. My goal is to get up to at least 8 hours of walking, but I'm really happy with this so far. It's not hard to do. There's no motivation for me to find. It's just part of my routine. When I go to my office, I start the treadmill. Easy-peazy.
I'm walking slow enough that I'm not experiencing much in the way of muscle soreness. A tiny bit in my calf last week, but none this week. There are some other problems that go along with the treadmill desk, however. First and foremost, my feet start to hurt something fierce by the end of the day. This week was better than last, and I suspect in a few weeks it will be a non-issue. A lot of it, admittedly, was poor shoe choice. More on that later.
Another problem with spending this amount of time moving is the potential for chafing and rashes. It goes away relatively quickly if you're smart enough to wear appropriate clothing, which I wasn't at first. If you experience chafing, here's two words to remember: coconut oil. Yep, the kind you buy for cooking. It's a solid at room temperature, but will turn into liquid from the heat of your hands. It's magic for irritated skin and it's also a lubricant. It's better than any lotion or salve I've ever tried.
I close my office door and open the window while I'm working, even though it's winter and I wear shorts and a t-shirt while working. Even at that, I'm a little warm, but I'm a warm person in general, always have been. I haven't broken out my winter jacket yet this year, so your experience might be different. Nobody I've talked to has mentioned being this warm, so it might just be me.
This one's important. Get some good walking shoes. Don't wear your existing sneakers or shoes, or worse, don't be stupid and go barefoot or wear sandals, crocs or whatever shoes happen to be closest to you. Good shoes, designed for walking, fitted by somebody who knows WTF they are doing. Four or more hours of walking is a lot of steps you're taking each day. Your feet will thank you.
So, the big question people probably want to know is: Have I lost weight?
It's really too early to tell. The scale says I've lost between two and four pounds, but honestly, my weight can fluctuate more than that just from water weight over the course of a single day. I might have lost nothing, or I might have lost more than that. I need more data points before I can form any conclusions. But, I suspect I have lost some. Even with a holiday party last weekend, I've been eating less than normal. I'm not sure if it's psychological or physiological, but I'm hungry less, and when I do eat, I'm tending to eat less and to eat healthier. I also haven't been tempted by my personal demon, the midnight snack. Well, more like the 2:30am-up-late-coding snack. Part of that may simply be that I'm too tired to work until 2:30am these days, though.
Overall, I'm declaring the experiment a success already. I'm able to work just as well walking as I am sitting except when I get fatigued, I'm burning calories while I work, and am just generally feeling better than I have in a long time.
Every day increasing numbers
The impact of the iPhone 4S on iPhone application downloads has been tracked by a marketing technology company, named Fiksu. The result is that download volume of the top 200 free applications increased 15% from previous record (which was 4.91 million daily downloads).
In November the firm’s department which measures this trend, peaked at 5.65 million downloads per day – and it was topped the 5 million mark! That is an increase of 83% over November – 2010. The analytics firm reports that the addressable market in the U.S. for potential smartphone users, which includes iOS and Android, is 91 million, as for China, it is 122 million.
Although these are remarkable numbers, there are still a lot of untapped application downloads out there. Furthermore we can assume that a whole bunch of new applications will be downloaded when new smartphone users come on board.
CEO of Fiksu Micah Adler says: “app marketers have become savvier about planning and executing their ad spends during seasonal periods to avoid paying premium prices for acquiring users. In fact, November presented them with a somewhat unique opportunity to add more users at costs that were actually below October’s.”
Fiksu Indexes data was sourced from 7.6 billion (and more) mobile app actions, which include registrations, app launches and in-app purchases. Via the Fiksu for Mobile Apps 156 million downloads were recorded.
These actions Fisku describes as “colossal expansion of mobile apps,” although the term does not express the real content of the situation…
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
The Best-selling book of 2011
By the end of a year most companies sum up their performance in some areas, as Apple did . But now we will talk about other company and that is Amazon. In December it announced the list of their best-selling books of the year. What an honor to know that Steve Jobs ’s biography by Walter Isaacson has come out on top! Consider that the list takes into account first editions that were published in 2011 and includes only paid units. The ranking was culled from Amazon’s traditional book sales figures and Kindle eBook downloads as well.
Senior Editor of Books of Amazon Chris Schluep said: “After the year of recommending books to our customers, it’s always fun to see what books really resonated with them. We chose ‘Steve Jobs’ as one of the Top 10 best books of the year, and even though it was published in October, the sales have been phenomenal in both formats.”
It is truly surprising to see the book at the top of the list considering its relatively late (Oct.) publication but the impressive sales performance was conditioned with the huge show of fan support after Steve Jobs’s death.
As for BARNES & NOBLE, the situation is a little bit different in its list of top 100 bestsellers of 2011. Through December 14, Steve Jobs’s biography by Walter Isaacson rounds out the top five. What about the book’s performance as an eBook in Nook’s line-up, is even less impressive; on the nookbook bestseller list it lands at #33.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Unlock your iPhone
Every phone should be unlocked, that leads to independence from the carrier it is got with. However the process is connected to some tiring actions but unlocked phones have advantages above original ones, e.g. you can use any SIM and any network in the world.
However, now everything is easier with Ultrasn0w 1.2.4. That brings iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS unlock on iOS5. Users who rely on unlock on iOS 4.*.* can now update to iOS 5. Steps below will help you to unlock your phone.
Firstly you need to jailbreak your iPhone 4/iPhone 3GS using Redns0w. If you have no idea how to jailbreak your phone, click here.
After jailbreak, head to Cydia -> Manage -> Sources;
Then tap on Edit and add the following repo: http://repo666.ultrasn0w.com
Hereupon, search for Ultrans0w in Cydia, tap on it and then install.
After this, you will get your iPhone4/iPhone3GS unlocked, hope you have not got any problem during the process. Now you can get more pleasure with your unlocked phone.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Apple’s most particular acquisition and it is true
As rumors have already said , Apple has purchased Anobit, an Israel-based company. As predicted, it paid about $500 million to purchase the company. The story was reported in the Calcalist financial daily newspaper on Tuesday. Even the Prime Minister of Israel tweeted about the action: "Welcome to Israel, Apple Inc. on your [first] acquisition here. I'm certain that you'll benefit from the fruit of the Israeli knowledge."
Apple will use Anobit’s technology for increasing the memory volume and performance in its gadgets, although it already uses Anobit’s flash chip in the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air laptops. The chip enhances flash drive performance through signal processing.
Anobit has produced two generations of its SSD (solid-state drive) technology. Its controller is the intellectual property that sets it apart from other SSD manufacturers. The technology extends the endurance of standard consumer-grade multi-level cell flash. As for numbers, it extends from 3000 write/erase cycles to 50,000 cycles and more.
An interesting fact Calcalist says is that Apple will also open a research and development center in Israel and that will be its first outside the United States.
Although the information is official, neither Apple, nor Anobit were available for comment.
Promote Your App Now!
The Polls Are Live!
Remember the announcement about our Holiday Promotion? We are glad to announce that the Polls are now Live on our Facebook Fan Page. PLEASE NOTE that we made some changes. We separated the apps into two categories: Commercial Apps and FREE Apps.
- FREE APPS :
Submit your free app for voting in our poll now! You are allowed to add the options to the poll that is already running. This promotion will last forever, with a winner announced every month! The winner App, announced on January 24th, will get a free review on our blog and will be deleted from the voting options automatically. The rest of the FREE app options will continue competeing for the next month, with all their votes kept.
- COMMERCIAL APPS :
To submit your Commerical App in the poll, comment the iTunes link of your app in Holiday Promotion Tab in the comments. We will add it in the poll options as soon as posted and will notify you. The poll for Commercial Apps will end on January 24th, with top 5 apps getting free reviews on our iPhone Blog.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Brighten Someone’s Day with Hugmail
Did you know that 40% of grandparents live over one hour away from their grandchildren, or that 50% of the over 75s live alone. What about the fact that last Christmas Day, half a million over 75s spent the day alone without contact with another human? Though these statistics paint a dark, depressing picture, this is the very reason why the Hugmail app has been developed. Rather than feeling bad about the lack of contact we have with our relatives, Hugmail wanted to do something to help, something that can help people show just how much they care in a quick and easy way. – so says the Hugmail website.
Created as a great way to keep in touch and share photos with older relatives who feel less comfortable online, Hugmail is a message service that starts on the screen and ends on the mantelpiece.
The Hugmail app turns photos stored on your mobile gallery or Facebook into real, printed postcards and sends them to loved ones anywhere in the world. The app is free to download, and the printing and postage will cost you a nominal fee of £1.49, no matter where in the world you want to send your postcard.
So whether you want to send a photo of your family Christmas to those who couldn’t be there or simply as a way of saying thank you for presents received, Hugmail is the simplest way to brighten someone’s day. With Hugmail, you can:
• Send full sized printed photos on high quality, thick, glossy card.
• Select photos stored on your mobile and Facebook or take a photo with the app.
• Add written messages to make it more personal.
• Create and send a postcard in less than 2 minutes.
• Select addresses straight from your phonebook.
• Auto-save any new addresses inputted through the app to your Hugmail account.
• Send anywhere in the world for just £1.49 including cost of printing and postage.
• Set your own contact reminders for loved ones
Your postcards are delivered to UK and German addresses within 1-3 working days, US and mainland Europe addresses within 2- 7 working days. International delivery could take a bit longer for fair reasons. All Hugmail postcards meet RNIB standards in terms of font size and type to ensure text is legible to the widest possible audience.
So what are you waiting for? Download Hugmail for free now, and help brighten someone’s day with a personalized postcard this Christmas.
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Steve Jobs’s statue in Budapest
Steve Jobs’s statue was unveiled yesterday in Budapest, Hungary. The bronze statue is 6 1/2 feet (two-meter) tall and weighs approximately 200kg. It depicts Jobs wearing jumper, jeans, sneakers and glasses. The statue shows Jobs familiar pose, gesturing as if addressing the world about his company’s gadgets. As statue commissioner says, "It expresses the dynamism and the spirit of Steve Jobs." 
The statue is located outside the headquarters of software design company Graphisoft. It was commissioned by the founder of Graphisoft in mid-October, after Steve Jobs died. As for company, it was supported by Apple since 1984.Founder of Graphisoft Bojar said that he remains grateful for the inspiration and assistance he received from Jobs. He affirmed: "Apple's support included cash and computers at a time when Graphisoft was a small company with limited resources, working within the economic and political confines of what was, at the time, communist Hungary. Apple also introduced Graphisoft to its worldwide distribution network, which we rely upon to this day."
At the foot of the statue, on an iPad-shaped tablet is inscribed a quotation of Jobs: "The only way to do great work is to love what you do..."
Our Holiday Promotion- Get A £ 49 Sponsored Review For Free!
To thank our dedicated supporters, Apple iPhone Blog gives you a unique chance to get your app reviewed for free on our Blog! The promotion starts on December 24th and lasts for a month. Please follow these easy
steps to get started:
1. Go to our Facebook Fan Page and submit your app by placing your app’s iTunes link in the comments in Holiday Promotion Tab;
2. Invite your friends and associates to vote for your app.
All the apps are inserted in Poll options as soon as they’re submitted by you. Everyone is then allowed to vote the app they’d like to be reviewed.
Top 5 apps that gain the majority of the votes by January 24th will be reviewed on our blog exclusively for FREE, meaning that you reach 1500-2000 target users in less than a day! Your App links are inserted, promising approx. 200 downloads within the first 48 hours!
Do not miss your chance, submit your app and vote for it now!
*Winning Tips
The earlier you submit your app, the more votes you are able to gain. You can share the poll among your friends and ask them to vote for you. Those apps that are voted by our fans are privileged over the apps voted by non-fans, to ensure this, ask your friends to like our page first.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Brilliantly Simple Idea: the Treadmill Desk
Software development is not the easiest vocation for getting or staying in shape. For that matter, being part-owner of a relatively young business isn't either.
I've been steadily putting on weight and getting in worse shape since before the dot com boom. Since we started MartianCraft, I've had very few days off, and my average work day has been probably twelve hours, possibly longer. Every time I try and get into a routine of exercising, something happens: a client emergency, a deadline, a build, a new prospective client, a minor family emergency. When there's not enough hours in the day (and there never are), the exercise was always the first thing to get cut.
Recently, I came across this brilliantly simple idea from a Mayo Clinic cardiologist. It's called the Treadmill Desk. Essentially, you replace your chair with a treadmill, and instead of trying to get a good strenuous calorie-burning bout of exercise in a few times a week, you just walk while you're working. You don't walk fast; in fact, you go quite slow. They typically recommend that you walk between one and two miles per hour, which is about half of most people's normal walking speed. This speed allows you to function fairly normally. After just a few minutes, you can type and mouse normally. If it gets hard to type, you back off on the speed a little. It's not a race. It's not even exercise in the traditional sense.
I'm typing this blog post while walking on a treadmill.
The goal with this walking is not to break a sweat, but rather to just be in constant motion. You will want your office a touch cooler than normal, though, as even slow walking does raise your body temperature. Despite the low-key nature of the movement, a typical person burns an additional 100 - 130 calories per hour they're at their desk. For a typical person working an eight hour day, that's between 800 and 1040 calories per day. If you work longer hours or weigh more than the average person, it's even more calories. Now, think about that. You have to burn approximately 3500 calories to lose a pound of weight, so assuming you don't increase your caloric intake, that's about a pound every three to four days of work, or two pounds a week. For someone working a forty hour week, that's about five pounds a month, or sixty pounds a year without additional exercise or dieting. There's a lot of health benefits that go along with losing extra weight, also. Lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, lower incidence of several types of cancer.
If you work more than forty hours a week, the benefits can be even greater, assuming you don't eat more to make up for the extra calories you burn.
I've talked to a number of people who are using treadmill desks, and the feedback was universally positive. Everybody lost weight – several of them a considerable amount – and all were in better health than when they started. And almost everyone said the following word-for-word phrase to me: "I would never go back to a normal desk".
After about the third person gave me the same basic story, I was sold. Sign me up! I can do this.
But there was a problem.
There are lots of plans for treadmill desks around the Internet and you can actually buy treadmill desks now. But, here's the thing: My primary machine is a Mac Pro with two 27" ACD monitors along with a crap-ton of accessories. I couldn't find any desk for under $5,000 that looked sturdy enough to safely and securely hold the weight of all my gear, and all the plans I found for building one seemed to assume the use of a laptop or small computer with small monitor.
Because of that big sheet of glass, Apple's monitors are heavy. Because of that big aluminum case, the Mac Pro is also very heavy. My computer and monitors alone weigh well over a hundred pounds, and I wasn't about to trust that much weight worth that much money to something that looked flimsy or was designed to hold a laptop.
I experimented for a week using a makeshift treadmill desk with my MacBook Air, and I found the walking and working quite easy to do, but also found myself constantly pining to move back to my desk to use my more powerful machine and bigger monitors. I usually abandoned the treadmill after about two hours when I'd start getting into more hardcore coding, not because of the treadmill, but because of the computer.
But, that week was enough to convince me that this was a good way to reverse the slow but persistent upward trend in my weight that's marked the last several years of my life. Unfortunately, it also convinced me that I could only make it work if I could find a way to use my computer while walking.
So, I decided to build my own desk. Building a sturdy desk this tall (over four feet tall in my case, since I'm 6'3" and will be standing on a treadmill desk that's about 6" high) turned out to be an interesting, but not-entirely-trivial engineering exercise. It took a couple of re-designs and a lot of swearing, but my desk is now done and I've been happily using it for a couple of days now.
Here's my rig on my desk (excuse the messy office):
(Yes, there's a beer bottle in the background. That was my reward for finishing the desk.)
After I've been using it for longer and am convinced the design is good, I'll share how I made the desk for anyone who might wish to build one for themselves.
So far, so good, though. The desk seems to be solid, has no perceptible wobble, and the monitors and computer don't seem to be putting any noticeable strain on it. Yesterday, I walked nearly nine miles at an average of 1.6 mile per hour and had a productive work day. Today's about half over and I've burned a little over 600 calories while fixing two pretty gnarly bugs in client apps. These two days have been enough to convince me that this is going to work.
By having my good computer on the treadmill desk and my MacBook Air at my regular desk, there's a built-in incentive for me to walk, or at least stand, rather than sit at my desk. I'm simply more productive when I have more screen real estate and a more powerful computer.
In a week or so, I'll put together a parts list and basic instructions, but the design is pretty basic. 1¼" galvanized pipe makes up the main frame of the desk with ⅛" wire rope and turnbuckles as guy wires to provide additional lateral stability.
This is the treadmill I use:
It's designed only for walking, will hold up to 400 pounds, and it's shorter than most treadmills, so it takes up less room. It's not cheap, but it's fairly reasonable for a treadmill at $400, and it can fold up out of the way if you need to. I've been very happy with it so far. While it's not whisper quiet, it's nowhere near as loud as most treadmills I've used, and it has a full set of controls on the handle where you can reach them easily while using it as part of a treadmill desk, which is much nicer than having to awkwardly reach over the desk to the treadmill's console.
The desk plans (when I post them them) are intended to work with this treadmill, you will probably need to make minor adjustments to use it with other models, as well as account for any height difference.
I've been steadily putting on weight and getting in worse shape since before the dot com boom. Since we started MartianCraft, I've had very few days off, and my average work day has been probably twelve hours, possibly longer. Every time I try and get into a routine of exercising, something happens: a client emergency, a deadline, a build, a new prospective client, a minor family emergency. When there's not enough hours in the day (and there never are), the exercise was always the first thing to get cut.
Recently, I came across this brilliantly simple idea from a Mayo Clinic cardiologist. It's called the Treadmill Desk. Essentially, you replace your chair with a treadmill, and instead of trying to get a good strenuous calorie-burning bout of exercise in a few times a week, you just walk while you're working. You don't walk fast; in fact, you go quite slow. They typically recommend that you walk between one and two miles per hour, which is about half of most people's normal walking speed. This speed allows you to function fairly normally. After just a few minutes, you can type and mouse normally. If it gets hard to type, you back off on the speed a little. It's not a race. It's not even exercise in the traditional sense.
I'm typing this blog post while walking on a treadmill.
The goal with this walking is not to break a sweat, but rather to just be in constant motion. You will want your office a touch cooler than normal, though, as even slow walking does raise your body temperature. Despite the low-key nature of the movement, a typical person burns an additional 100 - 130 calories per hour they're at their desk. For a typical person working an eight hour day, that's between 800 and 1040 calories per day. If you work longer hours or weigh more than the average person, it's even more calories. Now, think about that. You have to burn approximately 3500 calories to lose a pound of weight, so assuming you don't increase your caloric intake, that's about a pound every three to four days of work, or two pounds a week. For someone working a forty hour week, that's about five pounds a month, or sixty pounds a year without additional exercise or dieting. There's a lot of health benefits that go along with losing extra weight, also. Lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, lower incidence of several types of cancer.
If you work more than forty hours a week, the benefits can be even greater, assuming you don't eat more to make up for the extra calories you burn.
I've talked to a number of people who are using treadmill desks, and the feedback was universally positive. Everybody lost weight – several of them a considerable amount – and all were in better health than when they started. And almost everyone said the following word-for-word phrase to me: "I would never go back to a normal desk".
After about the third person gave me the same basic story, I was sold. Sign me up! I can do this.
But there was a problem.
There are lots of plans for treadmill desks around the Internet and you can actually buy treadmill desks now. But, here's the thing: My primary machine is a Mac Pro with two 27" ACD monitors along with a crap-ton of accessories. I couldn't find any desk for under $5,000 that looked sturdy enough to safely and securely hold the weight of all my gear, and all the plans I found for building one seemed to assume the use of a laptop or small computer with small monitor.
Because of that big sheet of glass, Apple's monitors are heavy. Because of that big aluminum case, the Mac Pro is also very heavy. My computer and monitors alone weigh well over a hundred pounds, and I wasn't about to trust that much weight worth that much money to something that looked flimsy or was designed to hold a laptop.
I experimented for a week using a makeshift treadmill desk with my MacBook Air, and I found the walking and working quite easy to do, but also found myself constantly pining to move back to my desk to use my more powerful machine and bigger monitors. I usually abandoned the treadmill after about two hours when I'd start getting into more hardcore coding, not because of the treadmill, but because of the computer.
But, that week was enough to convince me that this was a good way to reverse the slow but persistent upward trend in my weight that's marked the last several years of my life. Unfortunately, it also convinced me that I could only make it work if I could find a way to use my computer while walking.
So, I decided to build my own desk. Building a sturdy desk this tall (over four feet tall in my case, since I'm 6'3" and will be standing on a treadmill desk that's about 6" high) turned out to be an interesting, but not-entirely-trivial engineering exercise. It took a couple of re-designs and a lot of swearing, but my desk is now done and I've been happily using it for a couple of days now.
Here's my rig on my desk (excuse the messy office):
After I've been using it for longer and am convinced the design is good, I'll share how I made the desk for anyone who might wish to build one for themselves.
So far, so good, though. The desk seems to be solid, has no perceptible wobble, and the monitors and computer don't seem to be putting any noticeable strain on it. Yesterday, I walked nearly nine miles at an average of 1.6 mile per hour and had a productive work day. Today's about half over and I've burned a little over 600 calories while fixing two pretty gnarly bugs in client apps. These two days have been enough to convince me that this is going to work.
By having my good computer on the treadmill desk and my MacBook Air at my regular desk, there's a built-in incentive for me to walk, or at least stand, rather than sit at my desk. I'm simply more productive when I have more screen real estate and a more powerful computer.
In a week or so, I'll put together a parts list and basic instructions, but the design is pretty basic. 1¼" galvanized pipe makes up the main frame of the desk with ⅛" wire rope and turnbuckles as guy wires to provide additional lateral stability.
This is the treadmill I use:
It's designed only for walking, will hold up to 400 pounds, and it's shorter than most treadmills, so it takes up less room. It's not cheap, but it's fairly reasonable for a treadmill at $400, and it can fold up out of the way if you need to. I've been very happy with it so far. While it's not whisper quiet, it's nowhere near as loud as most treadmills I've used, and it has a full set of controls on the handle where you can reach them easily while using it as part of a treadmill desk, which is much nicer than having to awkwardly reach over the desk to the treadmill's console.
The desk plans (when I post them them) are intended to work with this treadmill, you will probably need to make minor adjustments to use it with other models, as well as account for any height difference.
New Device by Apple
We are chained to our handsets so much that we do not want to part with them, but sometimes we do have to. Researchers note that smartphones are almost never more than three feet away from their users. Therefore, the only way for your smartphone to always be with you, is a wearable device.
Wearable computer is not something new because a fancy electronic watch can be described with the same term as well. The main factor in this situation is the functionality and feature range of the devices. It seems that the last version of the wearable computer will feature a screen enabling us to augment our vision with information and multimedia.
via The New York Times Company
Some rumors say that it is been a year since Apple and Google have secretly begun working on the wearable computers. As for Apple, it promises that people will be able to see information on their upcoming iDevices. They will be able to communicate to the device again though SIRI. Author of the rumor claims: “a very small group of Apple employees” have already begun working to prototype the device.
The device will be the hub for our information sharing and gathering. It will give us an opportunity to transmit any information in every period of the time. Internet access will become unconditional.
Wearable computer is not something new because a fancy electronic watch can be described with the same term as well. The main factor in this situation is the functionality and feature range of the devices. It seems that the last version of the wearable computer will feature a screen enabling us to augment our vision with information and multimedia.As the picture suggests, the device will look quite similar to a bracelet. Design of the device proves that most people will like it.
In a word, it may be some time down the road before the device arrives, but we can fairly assume that this is the logical continuation of the smartphones, because they are overdeveloped by now. As a senior researcher specializing in wearable computing predicts, the next step in technology will lead to blurring of the real and virtual worlds.
via The New York Times Company
First Video Conference App For iPhone Available
Once again, a new app hits the market, initially available for the iPhone with its iOS platform only. This is not surprising, because iPhone is currently the most sought-after smartphone, and therefore majority of app developers focus on iPhone and iPad app development. This is the first ever video conferencing app. Some of you may be wondering why is this something new, as a video feature can be used quite effectively for the same reason. The difference between Lifesize ClearSea App and a simple video feature is that app offers extremely high quality for both video and audio. Moreover, the latest security systems ensure that no data is lost. This is of the special importance, since the target audience for this app is mainly businesspeople.
Naturally, this app can be used for private conversations as well, but in this case some other, relatively law-quality services, such as Skype, are usually satisfying. But if you want to use a video conference for business, the connection must be stable and noise free. The Lifesize ClearSea app empowers business people to always be able to listen in to each conference, regardless of their location, may they be on a business trip, on a vacation or at an outdoor appointment. Video conferencing is used by progressively more and more companies, and it was just a matter of time until the technology matured enough to lead smartphones use this feature. This app offers companies and businesspeople new opportunities in terms of their ability to act. Solutions for specific clients can be arranged rapidly and companies are generally able to respond quickly on external events, competitors upsurge or other sudden changes in market conditions. This new technology will not change the business fundamentally, but it will actually have a revolutionary effect in some way.
Here are some details about the app:
- Name: Life Size ClearSea App
- One to one video conferences with any number of participants
- The only enterprise-class solution for video conferencing on the market
- Connect to each H.323 or SIP-based infrastructure
Monday, December 19, 2011
Facebook App for iPhone Updated
Facebook has just released an update of its popular iPhone application, to version 4.1. The update includes Timeline Access and Faster Photo load. Now to view the new profile Timeline, Subscribes and Subscriptions, you can pop-over notifications and add people to friend lists.
It is an important thing to note that now you can load the photos faster. The photos displayed on Mobile Timeline looks beautiful and the interface is not cluttered. When you view photo albums via Mobile Timeline, only 4 albums are displayed initially, but you can swipe them to view additional thumbnails as well.
Consider that changing the privacy settings of the posts and editing a friend list directly is unavailable. However by clicking on the Friends button beneath someone’s Timeline cover, you can add them to friend list or unfriend with them. This is useful if you want to restrict some friends’ access to your content.
When the timeline is on, the notifications, messages and friend requests load in partial screen popovers instead of separate full screen. This is a good way to make it easier and faster returning to the previously viewed screens.An updated Timeline gives you an opportunity to filter you news feed. This means: the news feed will show stories from a specific friend list. A button above the news feed offers you an easy way to filter friends, enabling you to highlight the desired updates.
Facebook update is accessible for iPhones since Dec-18. Facebook states that it will soon arrive for iPad as well.
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Siri Helps Santa Get through a Busy Night
A new Christmas commercial by Apple, rolled out recently, shows Santa using iPhone 4S, particularly SIRI, for managing his 3.7 Billion appointments in a night! This video is a great example of how to effectively advertise your products, without even naming the brand or the model, or the feature name!
Now kids can really understand how Santa manages to get to know their houses and deliver the gifts to them so timely! With the help of iPhone 4S’s digital assistant, Siri, even the busiest person can successfully get through a busy day… Sorry, night!
Friday, December 16, 2011
Apple’s Most Particular Acquisition
Reportedly Apple is in talks to buy Israel-based Anobit, for the expected price of about $400 - $500 million. Anobit, founded in 2006, provides flash storage solutions for enterprise and mobile markets. Its solutions are meant to improve the speed, endurance and performance of flash storage systems while driving down the cost.
The company claims that its technology comprises signal processing algorithms that compensate for physical limitations on NAND flash. Anobit also says that its customers are among the world’s leading flash manufacturers, although it does not publish a list of them. Anobit chips are widely used in Apple products too: iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air.Neither of the companies could be reached for the comment about this widely-discussed purchase. That is why no one exactly knows motivation behind the action. Some rumors say that Apple is interested in Anobit’s technology to increase and enhance the memory volume and performance of “iDevices.” As we have already mentioned no one exactly knows why Apple pays such enormous sums on Non-software Company, but the fact is that after the acquisition, Apple’s advantages will wide over its competitive advantages. The company also has a collection of 95 patents at its disposal, only adding to its appeal.
In the last 20 years Apple has bought four solid hardware companies, and if implemented, this will be one of the largest ever acquisitions in company’s history and its first purchase in Israel. The acquisition will be Tim Cook’s first as well - as a CEO of Apple.
As usual before official comments, everything is predicted with rumors, but we should not forget that nothing is said or done about the issue yet.
Grand Theft Auto 3 for iPhone
Grand Theft Auto fans, it’s time to cheer up- a special Anniversary Edition of the massively popular Grand Theft Auto 3 is now available for your iDevices, promising unforgettable gameplay experience for Apple users!The special addition of the game released recently is quite similar to 10-year-old original game, fairly considered to be one of the leading games of all time. This means that you will now have to recall all the old maps and tricks to perform successfully again.Gun play and on-foot missions are still present in the game, with improved graphics and stunning soundtracks!
Welcoming you to Liberty City, where it all began, this widely-discussed app by Rockstar Games features:• Visually stunning updated graphics, character and vehicle models
• HD quality resolution
• Custom controls for the mobile platform
• Countless hours of gameplay
With the improved auto save mode and mission retry options, the chances of players smashing their mobile devices in obstruction is significantly reduced.
Optimized for touch-pad devices, Grand Theft Auto 3 features resizable custom controls and is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. The app requires iOS 4.3 or later for smooth functioning. The game is available in the Apple App Store for $4.99.
MyFirstApp Review
Touch-pad devices have definitely changed the way we work, play, listen to music or watch the movies, the way we learn and respectively, the way we teach… MyFirstApp is a group of three developers aiming to bring wonderful educational games to young kids through the use of touch-pad devices. On top of sharing the same goal, what else unites a computer engineer, an educational psychologist and a graphic designer? The fact that they are all parents of children aged 1-7. So they do actually know what kids really need for learning.
Believing that the recent touch-pad revolution opens new horizons for young kids and enables them to acquire new cognitive and fine motor skills while playing with high quality, colorful and exciting games, MyFirstApp team takes a lot of care emphasizing on the educational and the developmental content for the kids, creating high quality educational games for children.
You can find 15 games designed by MyFirstApp on their website, and even more are to come! The games are arranged according to different age categories, so it is made quite easy for you to choose the right one for your child. MyFirstApp games target children with the age ranging from 1.5 to 6 years. The games are focused on developing different skills, such as memory, matching, visual perception, categorization, conceptualization, generalization, abstraction, perseverance, diligence, accuracy, concentration, spatial orientation, classification and basic motions.At the first glance intuitive games do work on foundational skills that are necessary for success. These interactive, great imaginative apps will be loved even by the most special-need kid. Easy for children to use on their own with clear directions, the games by MyFirstApp are well done and well designed, yet simple and engaging.
All 15 apps by MyFirstApp can be found in Apple App Store under Education category. All of the apps are compatible with iPad and require iOS 3.2 or later. Note that all the apps are rated 4+, so it is not only we, who think that MyFirstApp really changes the way kids learn…
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
SkyDrive App for iPhones
Following the update of OneNote for iOS recently, Microsoft has now released SkyDrive for iPhone- a free iOS app allowing iPhone users to access Microsoft’s free SkyDrive cloud-based file storage service, granting Apple users with 25GB of Free Cloud Storage! This amount of free cloud-based storage actually is the most attractive offer, in comparison with other cloud storage services, despite an individual file limit of 100MB.
“We realize that not everyone who relies on SkyDrive for sharing photos or accessing Office documents uses Windows Phone… yet.”- said Microsoft’s group program manager Mike Torres, announcing the release of SkyDrive App for iOS.
SkyDrive is a personal cloud based storage and sharing service, allowing users to organize their files, folders and other stuff and synchronize them to all their devices, now including iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad as well!
With this free app from Microsoft Corporation, you can:
• Access all of your SkyDrive content including files shared with you;
• View recently used documents;
• Upload photos or videos from your phone;
• Share a link to any file using email;
• Create and delete files or folders you do not use any more.
In addition to their OneNote notebooks, iPhone customers can now access all of their files in SkyDrive, create folders, delete files, and share links to folders and files directly using the Mail app. The app supports all the basic options, except the ability to see synced storage from Live Mesh, but please note that this is just a beginning!
SkyDrive for iOS supports 32 languages, including: English, Bokmål, Norwegian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean and more. The App requires iOS 4.0 or later to be fully functional and is available in Apple App Store under Productivity Category for FREE.
We know you love your iPhone but just in case you have been thinking about switching to Windows Phone, surely you will have the SkyDrive app there too.
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Microsoft App for iOS- OneNote Updated
Microsoft has just updated its OneNote iOS application to support iPad as well. This is Microsoft’s note-taking app originally offered with Microsoft Office in 2003 bundle. It is now compatible with the devices supporting iOS 4.3 or later, including iPads.OneNote was the only application available on iOS devices before the recent announcement of SkyDrive for iPhones.
In January 2011 Microsoft has released its first version of OneNote app for iPhones. As for now, latest version of OneNote, which runs on iPad, makes full use of the tablet’s larger screen with larger pages that can accommodate iPod’s features better. The improved OneNote supports more languages, a tabbed user interface, table rendering and the option to sync notes over Wi-Fi.
According to Microsoft, the application is free “for a limited time” and capacity as well- you are restricted to 500 notes. If you have more than 500 notes, you can still view them but you will not be able to edit or create new ones. Unlimited notes cost $4.99 for an iPhone and iPod Touch, as for iPad, price of the application is $14.99.
How do you think, will such actions lead to partnership between the companies, or has Microsoft decided to increase its revenues via Apple?
Apple’s Favorite App– Instagram Review
Did you know that Apple’s favorite application is Instagram? Or you have not seen summary of Apple applications 2011 yet? It is a great honor to be Apple’s favorite application, so let’s know more about Instagram to see why it is so reputable.
First of all the application is free. It is compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. It requires iOS 3.1.2 or later. With Instagram’s help users are able to make and share amazing photos on their iPhone. The app is quite simple to use.
You can transform everyday moments into art with choosing one of numerous filtered effects. After this you will probably want to share your new photos. That is very simple – you can do this in a photo stream with friends to see; you can also follow your friends’ photos with clicking a single button. When you open Instagram you will find your friends’ photo updates, you can give and receive comments to express your thoughts about photos and to know others’ as well. You can also share your unlimited uploads instantly to Facebook , Twitter , etc.As for the latest version 2.0.5, the header view in main feed, flagging feature and upload reliability are all improved compared to previous versions.
What do you think, is this application actually worth to be Apple’s favorite app of the year?
Monday, December 12, 2011
Review: Top 3 Paid iPhone Apps This Year
As reported, Apple has made its annual list of top selling applications and other products. Here is the review of top 3 paid iPhone applications.
With the reason of celebrating Angry Birds’ 2nd anniversary and all episodes are unlocked now.
Price of the Angry Bird is $0.99
Fruit Ninja. That is very tasty game with squishy fruit carnage. After you swipe your fingers across the screen, you should slash a splatter fruit deliciously. You will feel like a true ninja warrior. Just be careful of bombs which are explosive to touch. Wise ninja Sensei will accompany your journey with wise words and fun fruit facts. The game features Classic, Zen and Arcade mode. It also has achievements for unlock. Enjoy with the most satisfying fruit game!
Price of the Fruit Ninja is $0.99
Angry Birds Seasons. It is the most waited period of the year but the pigs are up to their tricks, as they always used to. You should use your best puzzle skills to help Angry birds. The newest Angry bird will make an appearance and you will meet the big pig on the last day. It will be an egg-citing holiday season!Mighty Eagle, mentioned upwards, is again available for assisting you in fight against pigs.
Consider that you need network connection to get daily level.
Price of the Angry Birds Seasons is $0.99
We will review top free and iPad applications. So stay on our line not to miss any detail. Before that, see the summary of Apple applications and notify in comments if you want us to review any of them. If there is an application which you have not downloaded yet, do not hesitate, that is applications of the year!
Motorola against Apple, still patent war
On Dec-9, a German court issued an injunction against sales of the Apple products in Germany. The court announced its ruling on one of the patent infringement lawsuits Motorola Mobility brought in Germany against Apple in Apr-2011. The Mannheim Regional Court also ruled that Motorola is entitled to a damage reward. Battle between the companies shouldn't be something new for our readers.Apple is going to appeal this ruling, its spokesperson affirmed: “We’re going to appeal the court’s ruling right away, holiday shoppers in Germany should have no problem finding the iPad or iPhone they want.”
As Motorola has confirmed they have had negotiations with Apple since 2007 over a license to the technology. As for now they seem enemies to each other, the company says: “We will continue our efforts to resolve our patent dispute as soon as practicable.”
iPhone SMS Apps for Christmas
With the upsurge of social networking, SMS conversations are becoming more and more occasional. Despite the numerous options for free communication, (like Skype, Facebook and other social networking apps offer), text messaging still stays to be something more private, and is still used for some special and truly remarkable events.
Texting with iPhone has numerous advantages over other smartphones, as there are tons of apps that make the process more convenient and secure. We have already discussed some apps that make text messaging quicker, easier and much funnier, such as:
- SMSwriterLite – with over 65 ready sms templates for impressing your friends with personal messages;
- Translation Fire - for text messaging with your foreign friends;
- Group Text and Text Plus for group SMS conversations;
- and OMG Texting Dictionary helping you to be really short and stylish while text messaging.
If you’re our loyal reader, you should also be aware of EMOJI icons and should already know how to keep iPhone SMS conversations in secret. As the holiday season has almost come, you definitely will have to send over text messages all through your contact list. We think it’s quite timely to share some more SMS apps related to Christmas, to make this process less boring for you and more fun for your recipients.
- Christmas Wishes SMS – containing almost 200 readymade wishes for every person important to you, grouped in thematic categories.
- Xmas New Year SMS - containing hundreds of greeting text messages, with constant update for FREE.
- Winter SMS - Christmas and New Year – offering wide collection of the cutest SMS for Christmas and New Year.
- SMS-BOX: Christmas Time! Lite - a massive collection of Xmas texts and cards to send your loved ones, friends, colleagues, relatives and everyone you wish, by means of SMS, MMS or email.
- Christmas SMS 2012 - offers a list of the best Internet Christmas messages, selected and classified by festivities and types.
This is all by now; please share your feedback about the apps once you've downloaded them, as most of the offered apps are not rated in iTunes yet, for reasonable causes- no one has actually used them as Christmas is yet still ahead!
Friday, December 9, 2011
Summary of Apple Applications 2011
The year is finishing, we should wait for some surprises next year but before that let’s see the summary of the year. Everyone has its own taste but most people have something in common as well. Don’t you want to know whether your beloved apps are appreciated or not? See some statistics below.
Apple has released its annual lists of top selling music, applications, movies, TV shows and podcasts for the 2011. As expected, the winner is Angry Birds, as for free applications, the title was awarded to Facebook app for iOS.
iPhone is usually used for playing some games and top list of the games includes: Fruit Ninja, Cut the Rope, Tiny Wings, Doodle Jump, etc.
See some other interesting lists below.
1. Angry Birds 2. Fruit Ninja 3. Angry Birds Seasons 4. Cut the Rope 5. Tiny Wings 6. Angry Birds Rio 7. Words With Friends 8. Camera+ 9. Doodle Jump 10. Plants vs. Zombies | Top Free iPhone Apps: 1. Facebook 2. Pandora Radio 3. Words with Friends Free 4. Angry Birds Free 5. Skype 6. Netflix 7. Angry Birds Rio Free 8. Groupon 9. Fruit Ninja Lite 10. Twitter | Top Free iPad Apps 1. Angry Birds HD Free 2. The Weather Channel for iPad 3. Netflix 4. CNN App for iPad 5. Angry Birds Rio HD Free 6. Kindle 7. Skype for iPad 8. Calculator for iPad Free 9. Pandora Radio 10. Calculator Pro for iPad Free |
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Some surprise for you under iOS5
One reason why people prefer chatting in internet than sending messages via mobile phone is that they use some characters available for internet only. With some symbols they express their emotions better and talking with friends is not boring and ‘black and white’. While sending text messages from your phone, you should utterance your feelings with some punctuation marks’ help. For those, who have iOS5 operating system, that all is behind.
Most people did not know that iPhone had a feature, called EMOJI. In your iOS5 settings, you can find it in “general” menu, under “keyboard.” See there a prompt for “international keyboards” and then “EMOJI.”
With EMOJI’s help you can widen your message visually. Distinguished from emotions, it does not depict only facial expression and body posture. There you can find hundreds of illustrated icons that cartoon everything from foods to flags to animals to plants, etc. For example instead of texting “I’m in the bus,” you can just show a picture of a bus. Some of the symbols are presented in animated form as well – repeating sequences of 2-4 images.Is not this funny and nice? Has your mind about mobile text messages changed?
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Patent War Continues
 |
| via Reuters News Report |
Apple is one of the richest companies and some people cannot even imagine that it can make any mistake, but it happens.
Motorola has brought a lawsuit against Apple. The reason is a patent infringement. The final judgment is not made yet, but the thing to note is that Motorola’s position was not regarded by the court on the very first hearing.
One more case about patent issues is that Apple licensed out the iOS scrolling patent to Nokia and IBM. It offered the same patent license to Samsung in Nov-2010 as well, but the negotiation has failed due to unidentified reasons. Whether these two parties are still holding settlement negotiations or not, is unknown too.
Another misfortune for Apple was the fact that court denied its request to block Samsung Galaxy from selling in the U.S. Apple sued against Samsung in April, it said that South Korean company’s Galaxy line of mobile phones copies the iPhone and iPad. But it’s a fact that after this resonant case the Samsung share price has increased significantly.
As for now, Apple gives some suggestions to Samsung on how to design phones so they don’t look similar to “iProductoin.” The company indicates that Samsung smartphones should not have overall rectangular shapes and rounded corners, they should make items with front surfaces that are not completely flat and should also clutter the appearance of their devices. Samsung has not officially responded to these suggestions by Apple yet.
These can be understood as destroying Steve Jobs’s ideals because once he said:
”I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”
In a word, Apple has some nuisances but probably it will manage to solve the problems, as it always did.
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