TickleSpace - iPhone App & Drupal Developers

While driving home last night, I heard beautiful track on Flow 93.5FM. I recorded a fragment on my cell so I could look for it later. I failed to find the song/artist info after countless lyrics searches on Google using words I recorded.

It was by sheer dumb luck that I stumbled on this page which gave me name & artist info for the track. Still had to confirm if it was indeed the right song...

Next I went to Capitol Hill Records (a lovely flash site that can't be indexed by search engines.) which had Rewind playing on the homepage. YAY!!

Having confirmed Andreena Mill's Rewind was the right song, I did a few more searches to find where to get it. I found it here. Still no album to buy though.

Later on I found that Andreena Mill's MySpace which had the music video you see below.

La Rocca Creative Cakes makes wonderful cakes. I get them at Zehrs & other Loblaws stores. With my special day coming up, I wanted to share with you a cake I love.

The Chocolate Mousse Bombe is best cake I have found after many years of searching. I have yet to meet someone that didn't like it. If they hate chocolate...well they are a lost cause. The Bombe is a light, rich and smooth cake. I first had it in Toronto, at a restaurant called Just Desserts. After some digging, I found out who makes it and where I can buy it!

If am asked to bring a cake for a party, I always get the Bombe! This way, no matter how bad the other cakes are, I know I will l have some nice cake to eat.

Technorati Tags: desserts, chocolate, food, cake

Dear Steve Jobs,

The private walled garden known as .Mac is out of touch with reality. With .Mac's major features available for free from various web 2.0 companies .Mac is becoming irrelevant. iLife's many sharing features are crippled if you don't have .Mac.

If .Mac hadn't become pay only in the .bomb days, it would have grown to be the largest social network today. For example just adding a friends networking feature based on iChat buddy lists or AddressBook could make .Mac a wonderful MySpace replacement. .Mac as a social network can sell more Macs, iPods, Photo prints, music and movies. .Mac could make the life of Mac users easier and better.

To still have the .Mac tax today is just plain stupid. Why make users pay? Bandwidth costs? Nope. Apple is selling movies and TV shows for less than 10 bucks? It would take weeks for an average user to use that much bandwidth. Storage? Nah. That's too cheap to even discuss.

Someone at Apple needs to re-do those basic calculations of what the residual value of a .Mac user is to Apple.

Steve, with the iPod success heading for the plateau, you need a new killer app, .Mac can make Apple the hottest and most useful social network.  Do something before dotMac becomes deadMac. Or kill .Mac & have the dev teams work on making iLife integrate better with other successful 2.0 sites.

Frankly no one cares for .Mac anymore.

Cheers.

Technorati Tags: iLife, MySpace, apple, .Mac

My Dream App contest reaches finals: 

I love all six applications that have made it to the finals. Reducing down to three favorites has taken over an hour of personal deliberation. I applaud the organizers and sponsors for making participation fun and beneficial.   

So how did I vote? 

What I cut:

• #6. Whistler - Richard - Music creation has never been this easy or fun. I think this is a cool app, but since I don't have any music ski115 it would be like expose, fun to show others but rarely used by me. A search tool that let you whistle a tune to find such a song would have made it into the top 3 for me (I know that's not easy).
• #5. Cookbook - Michael - The ultimate cookbook application. Another cool app, but I don't have the passion for cookbooks. My wife would love Cookbook but it is not for me. Besides, right now, I'm looking out for #1 (me).
• #4. Blossom - Dan - A virtual plant that responds to productivity. So close. But I opted for Atmosphere as I have been working too hard keeping my virtual chi-pet alive. I just can't take any more virtual responsibilities. I realize this is a different app, but in the end it would be another virtual plant that would wither because of my neglect.

What I want:

• #3. Atmosphere - Cameron - Put the weather on your desktop. I've read lots of crying about how this candidate has got over dugg. You all have been reading too many 'gaming digg' blog posts. The idea is flat out cool people, a 'live' desktop showing weather conditions is IMHO is the ultimate desktop.
• #2. Portal - Farzad - File syncing from the future. Having .Mac like sync without .Mac is the ultimate senario for any mac owner.
• My #1 Choice. Hijack - Kevin - Browse your favorite forums. I like where this app is headed, with microformatting and possible collaboration with BBoard developers to standardize the layouts, tracking conversations online is the future.

  I'd certainly be willing to help Hijack by especially formatting the different modes of conversation at Otavo to allow Hijack to track quests, forums and blogs effectively without having to jump through regex hell. Wonderful idea Kevin.

So go register and vote for the top 3 I like. You have until Wednesday to do so. For participating, you get PhotoPresenter 2.6, Overflow & $5 off: Insanely Great Tees

Technorati Tags: Atmosphere, Poral, Otavo, Microformats, chi-pet, apple, Hijack, My Dream App

Potion Factory has made me smile several times this past week.

The first time was when they offered Voice Candy at My Dream App contest. I found Voice Candy's interface beautiful and the sound effects very realistic. I had lots of fun listening to myself talk. I think my primary use for Voice Candy will be to record my thought streams (with eyes closed, visualizing and verbally describing various ideas without having to write stuff.)

Today I learn that the have made a new app called Tangerine. It analyzes a track's beats per minute (BPM) and compiles playlists based on the setting you choose. This is the first time I've seen an app that helps organize music in this fashion...it is perfect for helping create a good group of like-sounding songs for a steady workout.

Good luck guys and keep surprising us.

Disclaimer: they did offer to provide license to tangerine if you blog it. That helps motivate me to blog, but the main reason I blogged them today is because here is a company that is testing new ideas, not just in terms of apps they are creating but also the various avenues they are taking to expose themselves to the world at large.

Technorati Tags: apple, music, Tangerine

Otavo has been a joy to use and develop.

Everyday I am surprised by how others use Otavo and what they are looking for. I join the quests that 'move' me and chip in whenever I come across a relevant link.

But, from all the quests running I have truly loved this one I am embedding on this post. It is a collection of things that may you say "this is genius"

There are a few others such as help with inspiration but when I see an update notice for these two quests in my email and rss reader it truly makes my day.

BTW: Yes I developed Otavo, but these quests have truly made the journey worth it, thank you all who have started and contributed to the quests.

Novis Design the daddy/alpha/omega of the chi pets, a while ago posted this:

The New Pet In Town - Upcoming Chi Pet Features
The Chi Pet has been one of the most popular widgets out there to date. And we think it could be much better. New features in an upcoming release are going to include a haircut named 'Barber Shop', a sleep called 'Hibernation', and a huge innovation that will let you talk to your Chi. These features and more will be in the upcoming version 1.1.

I have a fully grown chi pet that needs to learn to take naps and get trimmed.

Please hurry with chi pet 1.1. two additional pets have died on me so far, and I am not sure how many more deaths I can take.

Technorati Tags: chi-pet, widget

TUAW - Why Apple's Mighty Mouse is like the Apple III:

Well Apple's done it again with the so-called "Mighty" mouse. Their 3 or 4-button wonder is great, as long as you don't get hooked on using the little scrollball. Never mind the fact that you can't move in X and Y directions at the same time (as you can using 2-finger trackpad scrolling)-- the trackball is a piece of junk. I mean, the build quality is nice (just like those Apple III's had heavy-duty aluminum chassis), but after about a month of frequent use, the thing gets jammed with gunk, making it largely unusable. And yes, I wash my hands regularly...

I have found the little nipple/scrollball on the mighty mouse too-wiggly for my taste. I guess with my next iMac (24'' baby!) I'll have to get another Logitech to replace the Mighty mouse it will come with.

Currently I'm in love with the features of Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse

I'm hoping that a wired version of the MX Revolution will be available soon.

Technorati Tags: Logitech, mighty mouse, apple