Reading Books on iPhone 2.0

I've always been a fan of ebooks, and have read them for years on Palm devices with software from eReader.com.

I wrote a short article a year ago about reading ebooks on the iPhone, and another one last September on using Books.app, but the conclusion in each of those cases is that the iPhone would be a great platform for ebooks, but the software wasn't there yet.

I'm really glad to say that the software is "there" now with the release of several software packages on the iPhone. In particular I've been using eReader, and Stanza for reading on my iPhone, and have been very pleased with both.

In each case the app provides a full screen text view, with a tap or slide motion to turn the pages. Both are extremely easy to use. eReader works with all of my books from eReader.com, and allows me to download books that I have purchased in the past. Stanza will read several formats, but it's biggest use for me is a library of free out of copyright texts that I would otherwise pay for at eReader.

Of the two I would say that Stanza has the best UI, but eReader has the best book selection (by virtue of their online store). They are both free in the iTunes store, so give them a try and let me know which you like best.

Missed it

If you follow my tweets, you know that I was in New York last week for a couple of days. This was a rare trip for me for two reasons. First, Jenna was with me, and second I wasn't there for work. This trip was strictly about seeing New York, and more importantly deciding if it was someplace that Jenna and I would like to live when we are done in London.

One of my ulterior motives for this trip was a visit to The Museum of Modern Art to see Van Gogh's The Starry Night. It is one of my favorite paintings, but I had never had a chance to see it in person. When we went to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam a few months ago, I learned it was in New York at MOMA, and was looking forward to seeing it there.

Sadly, when we got to the gallery we learned that the painting was now traveling, and I wouldn't be able to see it.



According to the sign it will be back in New York in Autumn, so maybe I'll get a chance then. If not, then it's coming to Amsterdam in 2009, and I'll go over to see it there.

Keeping up with friends

I've been using twitter for about a year and a half, and other social aggregation services like FaceBook and FriendFeed, but recently I've found that there are a couple of developments that, combined, really make the service worth the time.

First is the growing convergence between these services. When I write post on twitter, it goes into my status message on Facebook, and is also aggregated on FriendFeed. When I comment on a post on FriendFeed, the comment can be sent to twitter as well, and when I write a post on my blog, it ends up on Twitter and FriendFeed.

Second is the number of people watching these services. From my point of view that number has finally reached a majority of the people I try to keep track of, and in many cases I'm starting to connect with old friends who I haven't heard from in years.

Third is the amount of activity on these sites. People are really starting to use them and even better, people are really starting to interact on these services.

I ran into Christina Kuhn today at work, and we got to talking about the fact that she knew I was in town because she saw my status on Twitter. The she mentioned that one of her friends just announced her pregnancy on Twitter. I had to laugh when she brought this up, because I follow the same friend, and found out about her news the same way.

Over the last few days I've had a bunch of replies from people I knew in high school, former jobs, and old friends. It's starting to feel like a real community. Do other people have similar experiences?

Google Translate for iPhone

One of the things I love about working for Google is the 20% time. While it's popularly touted in the media as "one day a week to do whatever you want", it's really just an acknowledgement that there are times when you get an itch, and have to scratch it. The company let's you do that on their time for up to 20% of your time.

This is a great way to explore new areas, and try new things. It's also a great way to get a product out the door that might not happen otherwise.

My latest 20% project is an iPhone interface for Google Translate. You can see the blog post where I introduced the feature over on the Google Mobile blog.

This was a fun project to work on. First I got to dive deeper into client-side javascript and HTML5 AIPs. Second I got to work with some great engineers like my friend David Singleton.

So far the response to the app is pretty good. There are about 1200 links on a relevant Google Blog search, and about 40 results on the same search in Google News. So far, I've seen a lot of great recommendations, and will have to plow through all these articles to see what people are saying.

I'm already hard at work on adding recommendations and incorporating feedback, expect to see more updates in the future.

Apple running away from success

When you are trying to create a new development ecosystem the number one thing you have to keep in mind is that the developers are the lifeblood of that system. Why was palm the number one handheld for so long? Because it had an incredibly strong development community. What kept that community so strong? The support from Palm in the form of development tools, and resources.

Why has the Mac and Mac OS X been so successful? Because apple has supported developers by giving away commercial grade development environments, and publishing huge amounts of information about the OS so that you can build any app you can think of.

How is apple screwing the pooch on the iPhone? Because they are messing around with developers income streams. I sight two cases from last week:

First Nullriver, which built a tethering app to allow you to use your "unlimited data" from your iPhone contract on any computer. It was a clever little hack, Nullriver got it into the app store, and downloaded by a bunch of people before Apple pulled the app from the store shelves. This in itself might have been OK, but Apple didn't see fit to communicate at all with the developer:

We still haven't gotten any answer from Apple as to why NetShare was removed from the App Store. Calls to ADC yield wait times of a few hours and we're forced to give up. E-mails to various contacts at Apple and the developer program have also given us no response. Is this acceptable business practice? We don't think so. When an application fails to be approved or even more importantly so, when an application gets removed from sale, Apple should be required to provide a valid reason.

Second Box Office is also pulled from the App store. This case may be due to a name change for the App, but the basic issue is similar, a lack of communication from Apple:

I'm currently investigating why Now Playing/BoxOffice was pulled from the app store. Hopefully i'll get some actionable information soon.

In each case Apple could have avoided trouble by responding to developer questions. In both cases the developers have tried to get in touch with Apple to find out what is going on with their applications, and in neither case have they received any information from Apple.

This is just poor customer service on the part of Apple for it's developer customers. These are the people that Apple is planning to use to make the new iPhone an unmitigated success, but Apple is going to find it a lonely road if they don't start paying attention to their developers.

Support is about more than splitting a revenue stream, it's about responding to issues as they arise, and answering questions. Support is about not leaving your developers out to dry when they are depending on you.