Monday, September 24, 2007

Amusing Photo


I was in Minneapolis and flying Northwest airlines to San Francisco with a connection through Seattle. I was waiting in line at the gate to talk to the airline rep. And behind her is this large screen displaying flight information...which looks pretty nice and doesn't show any hints of any OS platform. But suddenly it was clear what platform it runs on when the dreaded Application Error dialog appeared. I pointed it out to them and they clicked on OK, but it kept coming back.

They don't run XP in the cockpit do they?

Paul

Monday, September 17, 2007

Move those icons!

Hey AppMarks fans,

We've released some great new changes today.


  • Moving Icons: You've been able to rearrange icons on your computer and sync those changes to your phone for awhile now, but many of you wanted to be able to move icons from convenience of your iPhone. Well, now you can! The real difficulty was figuring out the best interface for rearranging icons given that iPhone Safari doesn't support drag and drop in web pages. After much testing and research, we've come up with a solution that's quicker and easier to use than the "swapping" techniques commonly used. Give it a spin and let us know what you think.
  • Faster loading (again): We've made further improvements to decrease load times over EDGE and make the application more responsive during loading.
  • New Menus: You'll notice a new look and layout to our menus. The existing menu layout became cumbersome as we added more features. While existing users might need a little time to reorient themselves, the new layout will be easier for new users and more intuitive for everyone in the long run.
  • Instructions: To make AppMarks more user-friendly, we've added brief instructions in the AppMarks title bar to help you while you're editing, deleting, or moving icons.


As always, we love your feedback so keep those emails coming to info [at] appmarks.com.

-The AppMarks Team

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Advertising

Hey AppMarks users,

We've begun experimenting with advertising on AppMarks and you'll notice some changes as we try various Ad providers. As always, we'd love your feedback on the change so keep those emails coming to info [at] appmarks [dot] com.

AppMarks Team

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Personalization

Hey folks,

Here's the skinny on the latest happenings at AppMarks:


  • Application Database: No more typing URLs! We've adding a database of iPhone applications to make it easier to find and add applications to your AppMarks desktop. Just tap the "+" button and click "Browse..." to begin browsing our list. You can still add an icon the old way by tapping "+" and then "Enter URL...".

  • Backgrounds: There's also a new menu item "Background..." for setting the background on your AppMarks desktop. We've selected a few images to whet your appetite, but we'll be adding more soon along with the ability to specify your own custom background image. Try it, it's amazingly fun!

  • Editing Icons: A lot of you wrote to us asking to use your own icon images and now you can! When you edit an icon, you can now specify the URL of any image as the icon for your desktop.

  • Deleting Icons: A number of folks pointed out it's cumbersome to delete an icon because the "Do you want to delete this icon?" dialog is at the top of the page. We've changed the user-interaction, so that the screen automatically moves to the top of the page when you click "Delete" in the Edit Icon page.

  • Twitter: You can now follow AppMarks on twitter at http://twitter.com/AppMarks.

  • Donate: We want to make AppMarks the best iPhone desktop possible. That's gonna take a lot of soda and hotpockets. Help fund the cause via paypal.









With the ability to change icons and backgrounds, we've opened up a new avenue for personalization on your iPhone. Let us know how else you'd like to make your AppMarks desktop your own.

And as always, keep that feedback coming to our email address: info [at] appmarks.com.

-The AppMarks Team

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Reduced bandwidth and faster loading

Hey AppMarks Fans,

We're pleased to announce our latest enhancement:


  • Faster Loading: We've managed to reduced the download size of AppMarks by over 50%! Plus, we made some changes that should improve the loading time. This should really help those of you loading AppMarks over the EDGE network on your iPhone.


We've got more in the pipeline so keep those emails coming to info [at] appmarks [dot] com!

Ishan

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Edit Icons

Hey AppMarks Users,

We have added some new features and made some fixes based on your invaluable feedback.


  • Edit Icons: Now when you click an icon in an edit mode, you can edit the name, URL, or icon image. We've got a small catalog of alternate icon images now but we're planning to add more.
  • Magnifying Glass: An astute user alerted us that they couldn't use the iPhone's magnifying glass interface to move the cursor within our text boxes. This has been fixed. Thanks for letting us know!
  • Tell A Friend: Like AppMarks? We've added a tell a friend button to help you spread the word. :)


Give it a try and let us know what you think at info [at] appmarks [dot] com.

There's more on the way. Thanks for helping us make AppMarks better!

Ishan and Paul

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Thank You!!

Hey folks,

Wow! We'd just like to thank all of you for the overwhelming response to AppMarks. You've made AppMarks.com one of the top sites on both iphonetopsites.com and iphone-topsites.com . And now that we've added Sign In, we're thrilled by the growing number of users signing up and using AppMarks as their iPhone start page.

We've also been getting great press coverage in the L.A. Times , San Jose Mercury News, CNET's Webware , and MacNN.com .

We know we're far from done though, so please keep those emails coming and help us continue making AppMarks better! In the meantime, we've pushed out a few more updates today. Give them a spin and let us know what you think:


  • Improved Synchronization: If you've made changes to your AppMarks desktop on your home computer, just hit Safari's "refresh" button on your iPhone to import the changes.
  • Icon Examples: We've added example layered TIFF and Photoshop files to help web application developers design their own graphic icons for AppMarks. They're posted on our developer page.
  • Email Confirmation: You'll get an email confirmation when you sign up for an AppMarks account.
  • Lost Password: The Sign In dialog now has a link to email you your password if you've forgotten it.
  • Default Icons: The default icon list for first time users now includes BeeJive and Digg.


Thanks again and please keep sending us feedback!

Ishan

Monday, July 9, 2007

Sign In/Sign Out and More!

Hey folks,

It's been a crazy week since we launched and we've been busy responding to your emails and fixing bugs. Here are some of the latest changes:


  • Sign In/Sign Out: Sign up for an account to synchronize your AppMarks desktop between your iPhone and home computer. We know you've been waiting a long time for this, so thanks for your patience. Be sure to sign out on one system before signing into the other.
  • Liquid Layout: The AppMarks desktop is now properly scaled when viewed on the iPhone, in either portrait or landscape orientation. Rotate the iPhone and check it out.
  • Hiding URL Bar: We autohide the iPhone's URL toolbar to add room for more icons. You can easily scroll the desktop "up" to get the URL toolbar back.


Thanks to Joe Hewitt and the iPhoneDevCamp folks for their feedback and help.

Keep those emails coming!

Ishan

Saturday, June 30, 2007

June 29


I had to run an errand downtown Friday afternoon, so I stopped by the Apple Store and wow, the line was huge...500 people or so I would guess. Here is me by the line on Geary one block away from the store:


Since I didn't want to wait in line outside all day, I didn't think there was any way I was gonna get an iPhone for a while. Then at 9 PM Ishan calls me and tells me the Apple Store is open until midnight, there is no line, and they still have them in stock! So, I pick him up and we head down there. It took us a while to get our turn to play with it and wow, it is really beautiful and responsive. And they still were selling them but said they might run out at any moment...yeah, right....but we took the bait and went to the checkout line and each had one in the pretty iPhone bag five minutes later.

Paul

Friday, June 29, 2007

AppMarks Is Launched

Finally, AppMarks is launched!  AppMarks is a web desktop for the iPhone.  It lets you organize your favorite web apps and sites as attractive icons laid out just like the home screen on the iPhone.  Try it here

We thought it would be up days ago, of course.  But June 29 kept getting closer and closer...and it became clear our schedule was wishful thinking.

Normally, at 6 AM I am sleeping the final couple hours of a good night's rest.  But on June 29, I saw San Francisco dawn from my Alamo Square condo view and it was very nice.  As the light slowly faded in, it revealed a light, grey low-lying fog wrapping the modern tall buildings to the east.   Foghorns were groaning every thirty seconds like an alarm clock for elephants.  And the dark quiet transformed slowly into pulses of car engines approaching and passing, as the citizens sought Golden Gate street, the corridor to another day of work.

OK, I think I need more coffee...

Paul