As one who uses his iPhone as well as laptop to frequently view and save links from apps, tweets, blogs, emails, feed reader, etc. but use Firefox or Chrome as my primary browser, I would love to see Apple purchase Instapaper and create a system wide utility which allows users to save any link encountered in any of the aforementioned media types or platforms to the cloud. Ideally the system would create a universal option for users to either save a link to the cloud and/or save an open page to the cloud. I have included a mock-up of how I think the iPhone should handle links below rather than the current inconsistent approach with forced byzantine workarounds.
If apple were to acquire Instapaper and integrate it into the iPhone (and coming tablet device) the service would compete directly with services like delicious.com (another favorite) and create a powerful, simple way for Apple users to track and share links. The system would also provide Apple a proprietary pulse on the real time web and the link economy. The acquisition would also seem to be a good fit with the recent acquisition of Lala by Apple and its move to the cloud.
On a cool leaf strewn pedal through the city this weekend I had the opportunity to re-listen to two excellent presentations from Matt Jones ( dopplr founder and now principal at Berg London) and Matt Webb (also a principal at Berg) on the web, cities, and and our increasingly interconnected future. Highly recommend both talks and the Matt Jones presentation from last weeks Design by Fire conference.
Audio: The Demon Haunted World (mp3) – Matt Jones
Escalante: Web Directions North Keynote (mp3) – Matt Webb
The Demon Haunted World (presentation) – Matt Jones at Webstock
In this post I’ll share what I have learned in the course of my search for solid, simple, easy to use and manage todo list software for the Mac and the iPhone. I use a somewhat loose version of GTD to organize my todos which works well for me and jives best with my combination of Taskpaper and Simplenote which I’ll discuss further below.
I have yet to find a solution that meets my previously described criteria and syncs between the desktop and the iPhone. Currently I have elected to use a combination of Taskpaper for the desktop and Simplenote both on the desktop and on the iPhone. Why? I prefer the text based task annotation and drag and drop functionality of Taskpaper, unfortunately Taskpaper for the iPhone has yet to be released which means no syncing. Simplenote on the other hand is close to perfect in its convenient simple user interface on the iphone as described here by John Gruber but doesnt have the extra nuances provided by Taskpaper on the desktop. I have created a desktop app for simplenote with fluid which I use to paste my notes and todos into from Taskpaper and vice versa for iPhone syncing. In a perfect world Jesse the creator of Taskpaper will release an iPhone app which syncs seamlessly with his excellent desktop app, until then I’ll hobble along with Simplenote and Taskpaper to keep track of what I need to do.
Some of the other todo list applications I have tried but felt missed the mark mostly due to the heaviness of their task management work flow or cumbersome syncing:
From a Libertarian friend of mine: “Perhaps congress should read things before they make them law. Maybe we could hire Marvel Comics to make comic book versions of bills so congress will read them.” Have to say after TARP and the debacles since, I have to agree.
Lawrence Lessig was the best presentation I caught at South by Southwest last week (more on South by Southwest and my visit to Austin soon) – check it here:
No secret that I am a big fan of the radical (and necessary) thinking of @umairh – there are a few contradictions in this presentation, never the less it is essential viewing for those who are wondering what the US and the world need to do get from looking at the abyss to a vision for a better tomorrow.
My name is Andrew Korf, among other things, I do information architecture, user experience design and entrepreneurial undertakings in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am interested in subjects that lie at the edges of culture, technology, innovation, art, design, cities, the economy, the environment, foreign policy and other more and less trivial subject matters.
