Filed under: Internet Tools, iPhone
W2: a little iPhone wiki
Steven Frank (of Panic fame) was unsatisfied with iPhone's notes, so he decided to hack up a little iPhone optimized wiki called W2 to use instead. It actually runs server-side, so you'll need a web server with PHP. Once installed, however, it'll allow you cross-link, embed images, search, and even use Gruber's excellent Markdown syntax. And of course you should be able to access the wiki from other web browsers besides the iPhone.If you've got access to a web server with PHP and want to give notes the boot, you may want to check out the W2 free download. Keep in mind that it "is a hack thrown together in just a few hours" with potential security problems, so you'll probably not want to keep your credit card numbers on there.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
momo said 9:44AM on 7-15-2007
I too was looking for a dictionary interface for iPhone, and it looks like there is now one via www.idotg.com
The interface looks clean, what do you guys think?
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Dave said 10:13AM on 7-15-2007
momo - that's a sweet little link on the dictionary. Thanks. A lot of little iPhone "apps" showing up, but I've not yet found a good centrall repository for all of them.
re: the blog entry on the wiki - I guess that's cool, but "notes' can't be server side reliant in my mind. Example - Say I make a grocery list on notes - I know for a fact that the supermarket I shop at, AT&T coverage in the back of the store is spotty at best. If I forget to navigate to my wiki page before losing the signal, I'm lost until I get out of the wireless black hole. That said, in reality, I still find for a shopping list good ole pen and paper work best. LOL
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Khairul said 10:44AM on 7-15-2007
i wanna medical dic ...
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dave said 11:11AM on 7-15-2007
Web apps are good, and I can't do anything but applaud the effort, Apple should have made it easy to port both widgets and applications to the iPhone.
AT&T's coverage in Massachusetts where I live isn't good, so web apps aren't helpful absent enough signal strength to use them.
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Fernando said 11:43AM on 7-15-2007
Great! More little web apps to use with my N95!
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momo said 1:23PM on 7-15-2007
Dave, I agree on your views on iWord.app, and as for your inquiry on a central repository for all of the little iPhone web apps, you can try appmarks.com, or iphoneapplicationlist.com or iphonewidgetlist.com.....Good luck!
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Macskeeball said 6:22PM on 7-15-2007
I noticed a minor typo. In "It actually runs server-side, so you'll need a web sever with PHP," "sever" should be "server."
I have to agree with the commenter who said that offline access is an important concern with notes.
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marcosmalo said 6:30PM on 7-15-2007
If you're running OS X, you've got an Apache Webserver built in. Turn it on in System Prefs: Sharing: Services: Personal Web Sharing (check the box).
I forget is it has the PHP 5 module by default (I don't think it does). So, you're going to want to install PHP 5. The best and easiest way is with Mark Liyange's PHP package:
http://www.entropy.ch/software/macosx/php/
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Macskeeball said 12:34AM on 7-16-2007
@marcosmolo, as I run my own server (albeit on a dedicated debian box), I have a couple of important things to add.
First and foremost, most home users are assigned dynamic IP addresses from their ISPs, so they'll need to use a dynamic DNS service. This will update an external service whenever your IP changes, and the dynamic DNS service will provide you with a domain name you can actually remember (as opposed to just an IP address). The best place to run the dynamic DNS client is on your router (look in your router's config panel) if at all possible, but there are also programs available for regular computers.
If you have a router, you'll need to do forward port 80 on your router to port 80 on the computer within your LAN that is the server. Again, look in your router config panel.
Some ISPs prohibit users from running their own servers in their terms of services.
Security is a very important concern when running a server of any sort.
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