Scharnetzki`s

How to compete with Apple´s Apps Store? Offer a better user experience !

Ralf Scharnetzki — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:49:25 +0000

To get you started here a simple but concrete example: There should be a way for any developer to stop users updating an application if a problem on a specific iOS version is detected (and not yet fixed). It does not look like that Apple´s App Store is offering this basic functionality today.

iPad as remote control for your media center : three conceptually different options

Ralf Scharnetzki — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 14:32:14 +0000

1) iPad as remote control for one specific application (here iTunes running on a Mac) Software: “Remote” from Apple http://www.apple.com/itunes/remote/ Software: “EyeTV” from Elgato Systems http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/eyetv/id329886711?mt=8 2) iPad as remote key board and mouse to control a nearby Mac or PC Software: “Air Mouse Pro” from RPA Technology http://www.mobilemouse.com/ 3) iPad to access and control the remote Mac or PC Software: “LogMeIn [...]

What is Steam for Mac ? What is Steam on PC ?

Ralf Scharnetzki — Sun, 16 May 2010 10:25:24 +0000

Steam is like iTunes an online application store but for games only and unlike iTunes (that is selling apps only for Apples iPhone, iPad and iPod) the games that can be downloaded from Steam will run either on a PC with Windows or a Mac with Apples OSX (but not on iPhone, iPad or iPod). We [...]

iPad gaming potential shown in video: LAN multiplayer and cross platform

Ralf Scharnetzki — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:57:10 +0000

This video is showing the potential of Apple’s iPad as a gaming platform. We are using the game Galcon Fusion to demonstrate cross platform multiplayer by running the game in parallel on Apple’s iPad and a Microsoft Windows 7 PC.

Steam on Mac OS X : Great first impression !

Ralf Scharnetzki — Wed, 12 May 2010 20:03:51 +0000

Steam was already on Windows our preferred online distribution and gaming platform. Since 1 hour (12th May 2010) it is now also available on Apple’s OS X. So far VALVE promised that its own games like Half Life 2 and Portal would become available on OS X for free to those who bought previously the Windows version [...]

Google Reader power user tips : read it later, archive web pages, store bookmarks online

Ralf Scharnetzki — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 11:41:03 +0000

Google Reader works great as a feed news reader. In addition Google Reader can be used easily as: Simple ReadItLater alternative to gather webpages you detected right now and that you want to come back to later when you have maybe some more time to read A very simple web archiving solution Simple cross browser and cross operating [...]

Current Apple iPad marketing approach not recommended by ex Apple evangelist

Ralf Scharnetzki — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 20:20:54 +0000

Guy Kawasaki (who worked in the past for Apple as evangelist) explains in Seth Godin´s free ebook “What matters now” that you: Never describe your cause by using bull shiitake terms like “revolutionary” and “paradigm shifting.” Instead, explain how it helps a person. Apple just launched this new product everybody was so excited about before it was [...]

Explanations for Twitter trending topics getting a trend

Ralf Scharnetzki — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:44:32 +0000

This is part 3 of our Twitter related mini-tutorial (part1, part2). Twitter.com is providing a short list of currently popular keywords from within the most current stream of tweets. This list is called “Trending Topics”. It provides a convenient way to connect to what is currently happening on that global message bus called Twitter: Recently some explanations started to show [...]

Microsoft wants less Windows

Ralf Scharnetzki — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:03:32 +0000

Microsoft is continuing to invest into user interfaces that will help users to open less windows. Quadrant and Pivot are the code names of two new Microsoft applications that make use of a zooming interface to let users change from overview to detailed views in a seamless way. 1) Microsoft “Quadrant” “Microsoft code name -Quadrant- is a graphical [...]

How to show all tweets related to a web page with a single click

Ralf Scharnetzki — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:55:29 +0000

Tweets link often to web pages. The reverse direction works too: with one click you can see tweets that are related to the current page your browser is showing. This is the second part of our mini Twitter tutorial (part 1 here). You could use a URL Twitter enabled search engine like http://backtweets.com/search?q= to find tweets [...]