I am seriously worried about some interaction I have had with the Twitter API team over the past few days. I recently started work on an iPhone project which relies on Twitter as the backbone of the application. It’s not massively different to stuff I have done before, and as it’ll be a mobile app, I need to use xAuth as now basic auth is dead, and oAuth on phones is a terrible user experience.

So I’ve applied to Twitter to get xAuth, thinking it was a simple flag turn on… Turns out it’s not. Twitter have asked me to provide screenshots of my application so that they can see what my app is about. I have none as I am building it. So what exactly are Twitter going to do with these screenshots?

Are we saying now that to get xAuth which they touted to mobile developers as the answer to their oAuth woes, we as developers need to pass a Twitter approval, and then later on an Apple one too? That’s pretty ridiculous. It’s hard enough that developers for iOS have to bite their nails for the mighty Apple to approve their weeks/months of hard work, but now Twitter too?

Sure it’s their service, their rules – but I’ve been given xAuth access before. Why the third degree this time? Are Twitter now going to view each app’s functionality and decide whether it is good enough for access to their API? What happened to freedom of use?

The worst part is I have no idea what I should provide Twitter in order to secure an “OK” for access to xAuth. I simply have to provide screenshots or wireframes to someone, and hope they pass the test… whatever the test is?

“To use xAuth, send a request to api@twitter.com with plenty of details about your application and why xAuth is the best choice for it.”

Twitter’s current argument is that xAuth isn’t a god given right. Fair enough, it’s theirs to give out as they wish – but they could at least be transparent with this fact. I’ve provided what they ask for here: http://dev.twitter.com/pages/xauth

It’s starting to become pointless being a developer if it’s so uncertain that you (a) utilise services, and (b) even get your app published. Let’s hope Twitter give more clarity to developers via their dev.twitter website.

As the mainstream media news bumbles along reporting the iPhone 4 antenna issues, and what Apple will or won’t do about the problem in today’s press conference, Apple appear to be pushing the rumour that an iPhone 4 recall is not going to happen. Techcrunch note that the WSJ’s apparent third party “in the know” is likely actually just to be Apple steering the media in the right direction, setting public expectations up front.

So if a recall isn’t on the cards, what is? Are we going to see some other good will gesture from Apple to keep people sweet? They could, for example – update the hardware to remove the antenna issue for all new iPhone 4′s, and offer free bumpers to existing owners – but that sounds like a hot water solution to me.

Maybe they literally won’t do anything? Perhaps Steve Jobs will walk on stage and say “You know what? We’ve sold 2.5 million iPhone 4s since launch, and 99% of users are extremely happy with them”. I doubt a “brushing under the carpet” type scenario is going to happen, that would be just too bullish, even for Apple – but what they may do is address the problem head on with a little public education.

Perhaps the Steve Jobs / Apple PR machine is thinking that maybe, just maybe, if Steve gets on stage and tells people how it really is, gives some valid evidence, and puts the issue into a bit of context this may turn this story around, with Apple needing to spend $0.

With estimates of a recall gong into the billions, I too think that that will be unlikely to play out. It’s more like Apple to take this thing by the scruff of the neck, they may admit that yes, the design is slightly flawed. As far as compensating customers? I doubt it.

I’m an iPhone 4 user affected by the antenna issue. I can replicate it in low signal certain locations (not all), and have had a call interrupted by me “holding it the wrong way“. That said, I love the iPhone 4. Obviously, I would love it if Apple could eradicate this issue for me from my iPhone, but if they choose not to, I definitely will not be returning mine to an Apple Store anytime soon, only to be without it.

The iPhone 4 is by far the best iPhone Apple have come out with. Sure, you can get into wranglings about how it’s not a phone if you can’t make calls on it etc, but for me, the iPhone 4 is bigger than that. It’s an amazing device, regardless of this flaw… and to be honest, this flaw has affected me once in 3 weeks, all other times I have purposely made it happen.

I’d be happy with an education, maybe a free bumper (ha!) Would you?

By Nicolas Thomsen (@apporacle) of ShapeHQ.com

Ever since man went from caveman to something more advanced he has had a need to keep track of his values. At first “money” were merely big chunks of shiny material and had to be kept in a big bag, later actual coins were made and they got lighter, smaller and easier to carry. Still people kept them in a bag or their pockets. When they went to the market they could easily see how much they had left to spend. When credit cards were introduced things got more complicated because now your money is kept in the bank and you don´t have the same overview of your balance when you are around and about.

But even though you no longer have all your money in your pocket, there is something else you always have with you – your iPhone. In my opinion the iPhone is the perfect tool to track your expenses. The truth is, tracking expenses, while extremely ordinary, is a very useful utility for many people. And while there are countless expense trackers for the iPhone, none of them hit the sweet spot between ease of use and a polished UI. So it really was the perfect first app for us to build as a team. I just wanted to spend a little time writing about how Expenditure came to be.

Picking your spot

The audience for the app was an important factor. After looking at the different apps in the finance category we felt that we could divide them into three groups.

Group 1

Apps that are easy to use, with a simple functionality but not a great focus on the interface and the user experience. Usually priced at 0,99$ – 1,99$

Group 2

Apps that focus on a polished interface and a nice user experience. The functionality of these apps tends to be more advanced, which means that they can be less easy to use. Usually priced at $3,99 – $4,99

Group 3

Apps with lots of functionality. Tends to target the more hardcore users. Very little focus on the interface and the user experience. Usually priced at $4,99 – $7,99.

We concluded that we wanted to target casual users with Expenditure. We wanted it to be somewhere between Group 1 and 2, with a high focus on a polished interface and user experience but at the same time we wanted to make sure that the app was very easy to use. On top of that we thought that $1,99 would be a good price point for an app like this.

Designing the Interface

I wanted Expenditure to have a unique interface that was relevant for the purpose of the app. I went for a custom interface but I wanted to avoid that it looked like a toy. There is a fine line between when After a lot of brainstorming I settled on a design inspired by an ATM machine.

It didn’t take long to come up with a working solution for the interface. I thought that the most important information to show the user is how much money you have left. Therefore the biggest element ought to be a screen that shows the user´s balance. After I decided that the UI should be inspired by an ATM machine it was a given that most of the app should have a subtle metal feel to it. We thought it made a lot of sense to show each transaction as a receipt that you could tear off when you wanted to delete it.

The User Experience

Our primary goal for Expenditure was for it to be the most efficient expense tracker app there is. We wanted to get you from point A to point B with the least amount of taps. The most important function is obviously to be able to add a new transaction. I’ve used most of the expense trackers in the app store and from my own experience the factor that decided if I kept using it or not was how easy it was to add a new transaction. Being a GTD geek myself I am a big fan of getting things out of your head as quickly as possible, and that is the main idea behind the way you add transactions to Expenditure.

I wanted Expenditure to be a tool to help people to get an expense “out of their head” as fast as possible. That meant creating a new workflow than the one found in most expense trackers. I didn’t want Expenditure to force people to categorize their transactions when they added them unless they wanted to, instead users should be able to add a transaction while they carry a bag of groceries in one hand, before they hurry off to the next shop. The idea is that you can just add a transaction and worry about categorizing it later. Basically it’s a 3-step workflow where you tap the “New transaction” button, enter the amount and then tap “Save transaction”.

The Icon

Designing the icon caused me some difficulty. It was really obvious from the beginning that the two, I wanted a clear connection between the app and the icon, to have a miniature ATM machine on the springboard. But what about the little screen? Most people who saw the icon liked it, but they thought that there should be something on the screen. In the perfect world the icon would be active (like the Calendar.app icon) and you would be able to see your current balance on the tiny screen in the icon. However since that wasn’t possible I had to think of something else, first we thought of showing the price of the app, but there were two reasons not to do that.

Firstly it would be of very little importance to the user after they had bought the app, it wouldn’t make much sense to be reminded of how much they paid for an app each time they looked at their springboard.

Secondly it wasn’t really possible since Expenditure is available in various countries with different currencies so each country would need to have each own icon. Then I thought there should be some number on the screen that would seem random but a number that would actually be a reference to something, kind of like an easter egg. I picked the number 499 because the original iPhone was priced at $499. In the beginning of the design process I kept the number of the screen but eventually I decided to remove it. First of all because your eyes were drawn to the number, the icon stood out in a bad way and on top of that the number wouldn´t make sense to a lot of people so I ended up removing it. It turned out I like the icon better with a “clean” screen.

If you have any questions or comments related to the design of this app, feel free to write in the comments below. I’ll try to answer them as good as possible.

Expenditure is available on the App Store.

Chirpie 1.2 is now available in the App Store! First off, Chirpie now supports iOS 4.0 fast application switching, so sending a Twitter or Facebook status update has never been quicker.

In addition to this, Chirpie has had all of its UI updated to support the new iPhone 4 Retina Display for an amazing high definition experience:

Chirpie 1.2 High Resolution

On top of this we’ve also added:

• “Listening to…” iPod functionality added to Chirpie Pro enabling you to tweet what you’re listening to in the iPod app.
• Fixed iOS 4.0 bug with copy and paste.
• Fixed crash bug when adding a new Twitter account
• App no longer enables the ability to send blank tweets/status updates
• Image Compression % slider added to Settings

We’re working on 1.3 to extend the functionality we have, including video, Twitlonger support and more. Can’t wait to share it with you.

Check out Chirpie: http://chirpieapp.com

I’m getting more and more miffed with my iPhone 4 battery performance, to the point where I think I am going to take it back to Apple to get a replacement.

This morning I woke up with 45% battery remaining on my iPhone 4 after charging it with the Apple supplied charger overnight the previous day. Within 75 mins I was down to 40% after looking at Twitter / ReederApp for 10 mins, no more. At around 08:15am I started listening to music, iPhone 4 screen off, and by 09:00am when I arrived at work I was down to 36%.

Additionally, previous to starting to listen to music on the iPhone 4, I turned off cellular data – which meant the phone could not check email or do any other network data activity via 3G or anything. I could still in theory connect to WIFI, but assume I didn’t as I was mostly on a train.

Now, let’s do the math on that. First off, Apple quote on their iPhone 4 specs page that music playback time is “upto 40 hours”. So how does my little 45 mins of music playback stack up?

(45 mins / 4% = 11.25) * 100 = 1125 minutes (18.75 hours total playback)

So, 40 hours quoted by Apple, Vs an average 19 hours in the real world. That is not good. But is my test valid?

If you take a look at how Apple conduct their battery tests here, they state that there is a WIFI connection, and a few other minor configuration items. My playlist had less tracks, although all are 256kbps AAC encoding – maybe that’s more of a strain? As I said earlier, I had turned off cellular data, there was no WIFI connection, and the screen was off.

I remain unconvinced, either I have a bad iPhone 4 battery, or iOS 4 is not a good battery citizen.

Update

Since writing this article 90 mins ago I’ve lost 3% battery: Sitting in standby, WIFI and cellular data off.

Update 2

I decided to run a test overnight to test my standby time. I fully charged the iPhone 4 with the supplied power adapter for 4 hours, then unplugged. In addition to this, I disabled my 1 mail account (in this case, push GMail), notifications were turned off for all apps. In 8 hours I only used 4% of battery. Previous tests where I did this (but not disabled Mail) I lost around 15% overnight in standby.

4% is still not great though:

(8 hrs / 4% = 2) * 100 = 200 hours standby time

Jury is still out as Apple say 300 hours standby is achievable… I retested my music playback again and got the same result as the above: 4% loss in 45 mins.

Update 3 – iPhone 4 Replacement

So I returned to the Apple Store Regent Street (where I purchased the iPhone two weeks ago). Took it to the Genius Bar who ran a test on it to see how well it was performing between charges. The Genius decided it wasn’t performing as well as it could (as well as anecdotal evidence above), so replaced it free of charge.

After charging fully for 6-7 hours, I did another audio playback test, the results were better:

(45 mins / 3% = 15) * 100 = 1500 minutes (25 hours total playback)

Note, I’ve put 3%, but the iPhone stuck on that % for quite a while as I used apps, 3G and continued listening to audio, so I think I actually could achieve around 28-30 hours.

So, all in all I’ve managed to go from 18-19 hours playback, to around 28 hours. That’s pretty good, and proves that my previous iPhone 4 had a dud battery. I still couldn’t achieve the lofty 40 hours quoted by Apple, but it was better… I’d encourage anyone that thinks they aren’t getting good battery performance to take it back to Apple… it can’t get any worse!

A few days ago I wrote a short article describing my experiences so far with the iPhone 4 battery. To be honest, I wasn’t that impressed – Steve Jobs had stated that the iPhone 4 battery life was upto +40% better than the 3Gs, and I had an iPhone 3G so was expecting something great! It didn’t come.

However, that said I do have increased battery life over my 3G. I’ve successfully been able to eek out more time with the iPhone 4. Also, with the introduction of iOS 4.0, iPhone users now get a battery life percentage reported in the status bar. This has made me notice the battery life drops more acutely than before, so maybe that’s why I’m less enthused?

Anyway, something strange has happened in the past 24 hours regarding my last article and blog. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, internet users looking for “iPhone 4 battery life” via search engines seems to have increased a lot. I’m unsure why, my specific stats show a 746% increase on users hitting this site from that search term:

Users Searching: "iPhone 4 Battery Life"

This percent, to be fair isn’t causing a huge traffic leap on my site, but the percentage in itself should raise some questions around if this is either (a) becoming an issue for existing users, or (b) potential new owners are now wanting to find out more about battery life in the iPhone 4 before buying than they did before.

The article itself hasn’t received a bombshell of negative comments, so we could assume it’s the latter. Certainly, the article was more popular yesterday than it was on any other day including it’s publish date. Google could just be ranking up the article, it comes up in 7th position when you search “iPhone 4 Battery Life”, I have no idea how it previously ranked.

Additionally, all other search terms hitting the article now carry a negative connotation, such as “battery problem” or “battery drains quickly”.

We’ll see over the next few days, the iOS 4.0 on iPhone 3G article grows and grows each day with 3G owner complaints, this one may go the same way?

See my real world results of iPhone 4 audio playback battery performance.

Update (08/07/10): I took my iPhone 4 into the Apple Store (Regent Street London) to the Genius Bar. They ran a test on it, and decided that the battery wasn’t good enough. They replaced it without charge. I have since retested the battery and am getting a slightly better performance out of it, which is good news at least. See my real world analysis for more details…

Stats provided by Clicky Web Analytics.

Surprisingly, there is alot of evidence out there to suggest a major improvement to the iPad by the end of 2010. This timeline may seem a little quick for some (especially those that have recently bought a new iPad), however if we look at what we know about what technologies Apple is employing in it’s mobile hardware (namely the iPhone 4), it spells a hefty update to the iPad.

iOS 4.0

One of the major changes to the existing iPad, and future models is iOS 4.0. Currently 4.0 is only available in the iPhone 4, supporting technologies such as the gyroscope, retina display, and most importantly to this, the front facing camera.

Many have wondered why iOS 4.0 is not available for the iPad until Autumn 2010, most believe it is because Apple are focussing on bringing the software to the iPhone/iPod, however is that really valid? Think about the timelines… iPad launched in early April 2010, that came with iPhone OS 3.2, and merely 3 months later we have iOS 4.0 which isn’t ready for the iPad.

Apple iPad 1

Call me old fashioned, but I find that a little unusual. I’m sure 4.0 could run on an iPad, but unfortunately the current iPad model is missing some key hardware which makes 4.0 squeel.

People were also surprised by the lack of camera in the original iPad. Think about it though, Apple wouldn’t add a front facing camera to the iPad, launch FaceTime and jeopardise their “killer” featureset for their flagship mobile phone product. I’m sure this hardware was delayed from appearing on the iPad 1 for this very reason. Critically also, the only way to connect FaceTime chats is via a mobile phone call – the iPad, cannot make calls.

iPhone RAM

On top of this, the iPhone 4 comes with 512MB RAM, compared to the 256MB RAM that is in the current iPad (version 1). With multitasking a key feature of iOS 4.0, we should see an increase in the default amount of RAM in the iPad, upgraded to 512MB to bring it inline with it’s smaller cousin.

iPad 2

If I was a betting man, I believe we will see new iPad models in the near future, smoothly aligned with the iOS 4.x release later this Autumn. I’m expecting a front facing camera only, FaceTime, upgraded RAM, as well as gyroscope functionality. I’m less inclined to believe that a retina type display will come to the iPad so soon. It’s far easier for Apple to get that onto the new iPod in September, and I remain unconvinced that the larger display area needs that just yet.

I’m a little surprised I have to say. I bought the iPhone 4 for various reasons, the HD video, the speed of the processor, the retina display, but also the improved battery life. Previous to my iPhone 4 I had an iPhone 3G. As I recently blogged, iOS 4 turned my 3G into somewhat of a brick, the betas turning my battery life south.

Apple touted (at around 45:30 in their WWDC 2010 keynote) that the iPhone battery life was around a 40% more improvement over the 3GS. Now, I had a 3G, so my battery life should likely be more than that as I am sure the 3GS would have had some improvement over the 3G.

With the 2 year old iPhone 3G I would  plug the phone in to charge over night, and unplug it when I went to work at 0700 am. By the time I went to bed around 2230 pm, the battery was pretty low to dead, so of course with my iPhone 4 I was expecting a big improvement over this. The reality is, I’m not seeing that, despite using the iPhone 4 less.

Why am I using it less? Because my mobile provider O2 are now capping data at 500MB per month, so I am now really only using the 3G when I have to (for Twitter mostly). So I thought even my new usage style would save a big chunk too.

Anyway, back to the battery performance of the iPhone 4 -> turns out it’s not the great improvement I had hoped. With less email accounts, but the same number of apps receiving push notifications, I can still only eek the battery out until the next morning (ie an additional overnight when it’s effectively in standby).

That seemed wrong to me, so I thought I would scale back any network activity the iPhone 4 is doing:

• I got rid of push email via GMail, and changed it back to fetch every 30 mins.
• Removed all other email accounts
• Stopped any applications receiving push notifications

Still no improvement unfortunately, which was a shame. I can’t (to be honest) understand how my battery is being eaten away so quickly. The phone might as well be in airplane mode, but it still seems to go through battery significantly when in standby.

I’m not the only one. My friend @jonguntrip has the same. He’s doing overnight charges, but seeing the battery drain significantly.

The strangest thing is when I see comments like this from other iPhone 4 users:

“Battery life seems longer too. Just like the iPad, takes longer to charge but considerably longer (esp iPad) to discharge.”

I’ve seen an iPad in action, and it’s battery life is extremely long. Of course the iPad has a massive battery compared. I’m experiencing the opposite though, charging is quick, as well as discharging.

Anyone else experiencing the same, or different? Keen to see if I’m the only one seeing this type of battery behaviour, and if I have a dud.

See my real world results of iPhone 4 audio playback battery performance.

In addition, check out this article where I discuss some stats received from this article over the past few days.

Update (08/07/10): I took my iPhone 4 into the Apple Store (Regent Street London) to the Genius Bar. They ran a test on it, and decided that the battery wasn’t good enough. They replaced it without charge. I have since retested the battery and am getting a slightly better performance out of it, which is good news at least. See my real world analysis for more details…

So I’ve had my iPhone 4 for a day now, and one thing I was desperate to try was the HD video recording. It’s pretty impressive as the video below shows. Moderate lighting whilst my daughter has a bath. The iPhone 4 performed pretty well if you ask me, including sound.

Check out the full HD version here. What’s been your experiences so far? Pretty solid for a smart phone…

And I thought it was just me, turns out – it’s not. After installing many a beta for iOS 4.0 my 3G was under performing massively. I thought to myself that it’s just the beta software blah blah blah, and got over it. That was until Mr Steve Jobs announced at WWDC that Apple would be shortly making available an iOS 4.0 gold candidate.

What I can happily report is that it’s not just me, as this video from flickr clearly shows (to reiterate, this video is not mine). It’s a great demonstration of an iPhone 3G running iOS4 and iOS3 side by side – the performance hit on 4.0 is significant:

Video showing iPhone 3G running iOS 4 and iOS 3

I shuddered to think what that a gold candidate at WWDC would be like. Beta 4 was performing pretty bad on my 3G, and to have a gold candidate ready (I thought) was a big surprise.

Symptoms I’m experiencing with the current 4.0 are:

• Slow performance on pretty much all applications
• Phone slows to a crawl after +1 day use, applications fail to open and crash to the home screen.
• Battery life on 3G has dropped significantly
• Text input applications frequently lag due to (what I assume) is spell check.

These are all moot points though for me, as I will hopefully be a proud owner of a iPhone 4 in two days time. Thank the Apple gods, as I’m close to throwing my new brick of a 3G at the wall.

Update

Something else I’d like to add is that in order for me to cope better with the speed decreases in software performance, I turned off 3G. The response from the iPhone 3G was much improved after this.

Also, iBooks is a slow dog on the 3G. Takes 15 seconds to load the app with 1 book in it, then another 15 secs to attempt to open a book (if the app doesn’t crash).

Bad times all round for iPhone 3G users (IMO).