Mac Sage

The Power of WordPress Series

patrick — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:46:53 +0000

The release of my eBook The Power of WordPress: Building a Successful Business Site is near!

As a way to build interest, I have released a free 22-page eBook on WordPress Plugins. In this eBook, I cover what I consider to be the top 10 essential plugins for any WordPress website. Plugins are at the heart of added functionality for WordPress, and understanding how to use them effectively within your WordPress site is critical. I explain what they do, why it’s important, and how to install and configure them.

As many of you already know, I’m a huge WordPress advocate. I now have all of my clients on WordPress sites and they are pleased to have the kind of control and autonomy that comes with a website built on the WordPress platform. They are also realizing added savings by not having to pay me (or any developer) for making additions or changes to their site. This is a win-win situation for the me and my clients. I prefer to focus on the design and creation of websites, and not so much the ongoing maintenance. My clients prefer to have a site built for them that allows them to easily tweak and fine-tune it as their business grows.

In the days leading up to the release of The Power of WordPress: Building a Successful Business Site, I will be adding quick posts to this site on various aspects of WordPress. Please come back and check them out.

In the meantime, you can get the “Top 10 WordPress Plugins” eBook by subscribing on the upper sidebar.

iPhone 4 Woes

patrick — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 18:05:26 +0000

I’m still waiting for the dust to settle before I get the new iPhone.

An article in today’s L.A. Times takes Steve Jobs to task for suggesting that competitor’s handsets share the same antenna issue that plagues the iPhone 4. It’s a little disappointing to hear that Jobs has chosen to handle this issue by attacking the competition; even if what he suggests is true. Since when does Apple want to set the bar that low?

The signal issue seems to be mitigated by simply putting the iPhone into a protective skin. I thought that most people get skins for their iPhones anyway. Maybe not. But this suggests that Apple should have provided a suitable skin with each iPhone from the beginning.

I felt the same way about the iPad. The naked iPad is, in many ways, a design failure. It is not comfortable to hold and is awkward on both a table or the lap. However, Apple’s iPad cover is a design success, and transforms the iPad into a comfortable, usable device. Apple should have provided the cover as part of the purchase price of the iPad.

A while back, Apple stopped providing video adapters with their laptops. I was surprised and disappointed when I learned of this. What’s next? Will the power cord soon become an optional, extra purchase?

Obviously, I’m still a huge Apple fan. But I’m concerned that Apple is beginning to engage in some of the same less-than-honorable practices of many of its competitors. I expect more from Apple and Jobs.

Perhaps Apple will learn a valuable lesson in this latest public relations failure.

Apple’s iPhone OS: It’s No Flash in the Pan

patrick — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 17:05:20 +0000

Anyone still out there that doesn’t yet realize that Apple has become quite savvy about design, development, marketing and business strategy, is clearly brain-dead.

Apple’s new developer agreement stipulates that “applications that link to documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited.” That pretty much means that Flash is prohibited as a development tool for the iPhone/iPod/iPad. This takes much of the wind out of Adobe’s CS5 announcement and the Packager for iPhone tool.

It’s clear that Apple will no longer tether itself to any technology that may impede (or potentially impede) it’s innovation and growth. Apple may lose a few developers, but even the angriest of developers here know that this loss will be insignificant to Apple.

It’s projected that by the end of this year, there will be more than 100 million iPhone OS devices in the wild. If you are running a content site that doesn’t support this OS, there are 100 million reasons why you may be out of work.

Flash’s days are numbered… HTML5 will be the final nail in the coffin.

iPad: The Case

patrick — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 05:59:04 +0000

Industrial design can be interpreted in many ways.

Seems Apple threw a bone to itself by creating another very well designed, simple product. The iPad Case.

But let’s be honest here. The iPad needed the case from the beginning. Is Apple beginning the policy of selling components?

My gripe:
• Apple, you just missed on the design or cut of the case-top.
Another few millimeters around the edges and you would have nailed it.

Otherwise, an excellent answer to the bare iPad’s predicament.

The iPad: A 24-Hour Review

patrick — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 02:40:20 +0000

Apple's iPad

After 24 hours with Apple’s new iPad, I’m convinced of two things.

First, the iPad is a game-changer. It will change our relationship to information and education technology. It will change game playing. And, it may possibly bring gaming and educational technologies closer together.

Second, it has some significant evolution ahead.

After a relatively short period of time experimenting and playing with the iPad, it’s clear that in positioning the iPad in the seemingly narrow niche between the laptop computer and the mobile phone device, Apple may have hit the sweet spot of where most folks use personal computer technology. That is, most folks use personal computer technology to: send/receive email, browse the web, engage in social networking (e.g., Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube), acquire and listen to music, share photos/videos, and manage tasks and schedules. Most people mostly do these things, and most of them want a way to do it without hassling with file structures and device drivers and compatibility issues. The iPad mostly does this.

Whereas the more versatile and powerful laptop computer allows the user to be both a consumer and producer/publisher of web content, there’s no question that the iPad returns to the more TV-like approach of the user being primarily a consumer of multimedia web content. While the iPad certainly offers the ability to produce content, it is in a decidedly limited way. In as much as creating email, commenting to blog posts, and social networking interaction can be thought of as content-producing activities, the iPad has you covered. However, if you want to create, edit, and produce video or audio content, or even produce multimedia documents (e.g., PDFs or blog posts with graphics or audio or video content), you may find the iPad (in its present incarnation) quite limiting.

The iPad is a content delivery and presentation device more than a content producing device. And as such, I think Apple has identified a huge market.

Now for my gripes:

The iPad cannot be charged by many slightly older computer’s USB ports
Most of the iPhone/iTouch apps don’t translate well to the iPad
The industrial design of the iPad is alarmingly poor. It doesn’t feel comfortable in your hands. (Perhaps Apple was throwing a bone to third party skin designers?)
Seems that there needs to be some general interface guidelines agreed upon by all of the developers in order to make apps intuitive to users
Camera. Hello? Third party or built in, it needs to be there.
Apple, please reveal just exactly what kinds of input and output are possible with the USB/Power port and the Audio/Visual output port!

Overall, I am pleased with the iPad, and will continue to explore. I am pleased with battery life, impressive screen resolution, impressive sound quality from tiny speakers, and good processing speed. The screen rotation lock toggle is a good idea. I would like to see the Dragon speech-recognition technology integrated into all apps. And, Apple, please continue to explore and develop the eBook potential!

For more info about Apple’s iPad, go here: Apple’s iPad