lists posts

All our prognostications, anticipations, best-of lists and year-end reflections -- in one handy place.

It's probably fair to say that Twitter clients were the first "killer app" category for the iPhone -- Twitterific lead the charge way back when, but Tweetie came quickly after and then the flood gates were opened. But now, a late and unexpected challenger has entered the ring: Twitter themselves. Mashable has the screenshots -- Twitter has always had a slimmed-down mobile client (and it's still up right now at m.twitter.com, while the new preview is at mobile.twitter.com), but this one's a little shinier, with almost all the features and graphics of the main site.

A few things didn't make it -- you can't skin your page as you can in the browser client (although none of the third-party clients that I know allow you to do that from the mobile client either). And lists are missing as well, though perhaps that's because Twitter doesn't quite consider them ready for prime time yet. Still, it's a definite improvement from the other mobile version, and the official blog on the subject says that they still have lots of visitors, despite all the other third-party clients out there.

One of the top Twitter clients for iPhone has been refreshed: Tweetie 2.1 is now available in the App Store [iTunes link]. Our friend Christina previewed the new features in 2.1 for Mashable last week, and the updated version delivers with support for Twitter lists, the Retweet capability, spam reporting, and geotagging of tweets (opt-in and optional, so don't worry that Tweetie is going to supercharge your stalkers without telling you). The full list of changes and features is on the app's iTunes page, and it's impressive.

Among the many improvements and tweaks is a crucial bug fix for an issue that had caused many 2.0 users (myself included) to gnash our teeth in frustration: the older version had a lot of problems saving state, causing old updates to appear again and, in the worst-case situation, old tweets to be sent repeatedly. It was aggravating, and it kept me from using Tweetie 2 as my full-time iPhone Twitter client -- but now it's gone.

Tweetie 2 is US$2.99, whether or not you own a copy of Tweetie 1 (it's considered a whole new app). If you're a busy Twitter user on your iPhone or iPod touch, you really ought to give it a try.

[via MacNN]

As the economy makes with the poop, we can all use a little bit of extra help finding work. Whether it's side projects, or full-time employment, there are plenty of jobs available for system administrators, programmers, and creative people -- all who use a Mac.

I've assembled a collection of sites and job boards that cater to those with a technical and creative skill set -- people who probably use a Mac. This is by no means a complete list, but should help anyone starting to look for work.

Comments consisting of "how could you dare possibly omit [insert name of board here]" will be met with resigned sighs from me, but cheers from our readers. So feel free to point people in the direction of boards that you've used or trusted before in comments.

Follow me across the jump for the list.

Going on vacation to see your just-born nephew and family will do funny things to you, like missing a handy update to a dear, dear application. Rod Schmidt's PackRat, the killer desktop client for the online PIM Backpack that we've mentioned once or twice, has been updated to v1.2 with some great new list management features. First up is yet another feature even Backpack itself doesn't have: a new 'Delete all completed items' option that appears below lists with items you've checked off. Second is another PackRat-only feature: condensing of your completed items. Instead of allowing checked items to take up more room than they should below a list, PackRat will automatically hide them and only reveal the top 5, with the option to reveal all just in case you need to double-check or recover a few.

In addition, Rod has also switched to a 30 day trial period (instead of limiting to only 4 usable PackRat pages), after which PackRat will restrict access to 5 pages until the user purchases a license. At $24.95, PackRat is an easy purchase for anyone who needs a powerful, feature-packed offline and synching client for 37signal's exception Backpack service.

Getting organized is all the rage lately, what with an endless sea of GTD apps, todo Dashboard widgets and Growl alarm systems. There is certainly something to be said about making a list and checking it twice - especially when your list offers Google Maps in a mouseover popup window, a Dashboard widget, individual alarms, syncing across Macs, iPod exporting and much, much more.

Listz is just such an app, and it is absolutely slammed with features. It even offers backup burning to disc, tabbed lists, extensive styling options, drag and drop support, categorizing list items, and support for printing lists if you aren't bringing your little white or black (or green, or red...) sidekick. But all this functionality comes at a price that is likely to appeal only to the power list'ers in the crowd: Listz sells for $39.95. It isn't the cheapest organization app I've ever seen, but it very well might be one of - if not the - most functional, especially with those slick rich media mouse-over popups.

The only way to tell for sure, of course, is to download a demo for yourself and try it out.

John Gruber has penned an interesting observation of how Microsoft might very well have missed the mark from the get-go when they made the strange decision to take on the iPod and iTunes. Since the player's initial wiz-bang sales period is essentially over (as in: it more or less set a decent sales barometer, at least for now), John wrangles some interesting statistics from Amazon's charts on exactly where the Zune stands in comparison to Apple's players (including year-old models), as well as its ranking in the overall electronics category. To spoil the surprise: the Zune isn't doing so well. We've looked at Amazon's charts before, but as of this writing, a record player is beating out the best selling Zune on the electronics list, while iPods - specifically the small, flash-based nano and shuffle - dominate most of the top 10 spots.

John then uses this data and good ol' fashioned people watching to conclude that Microsoft shouldn't have taken what could be their only swing at the plate in producing a hard drive-based iPod; they should have cranked out a flash memory model to go head-on with the nano - inarguably the home run slugger in Apple's lineup. While I tend to agree with John, I also see a problem with going down this road: Microsoft would likely have had even less room to maneuver, and even fewer things to market ('Beam your tunes') and invent lame, dead-end lingo for - they actually refer to sharing your music wirelessly as 'squirting'. Who wants to bet how excited Steve Ballmer's kids are to 'squirt' at school?

Sure, when you look at what you're up against in the DAP market, Apple's iPod nano and SanDisk's respectable 2GB Sansa player (expandable via an SD slot, and at #11 on Amazon as of this writing) are the top dogs to beat - but what could they have offered? I highly doubt they could have fit their DRM-crippled and arguably worthless (though admittedly buzz-worthy) Wi-Fi sharing feature into a nano-sized player, even if they made it slightly larger and uglier like the Zune is to its 30GB iPod rival. A 'Zune nano' with nothing unique to offer would dry up on its own in a market already dominated by Apple, SanDisk and Creative, and Microsoft's exclusive, 3rd party bitch-slap of a music store would have even less of a leg to stand on.

In summary: I think John's right - Microsoft made a bad move in copying the 30GB hard drive-based iPod, but it was the only move they had. In this light, it kinda makes you wonder why they bothered in the first place.

Willie Morris has put together a list of Mac software that he calls 'Crucial Mac Software: College Edition.' The list has lots of great software on it (including the fantastic Quicksilver), but I have one problem with that list. What makes it college specific? Other than including Microsoft Office (and not even the student edition) I don't see any applications that would be uniquely useful for college students.

Perhaps I'm an old so and so and I just don't 'get' the kids anymore. College students (and I know are some of you out there reading TUAW) let me know what applications you can't live without in the comments.

[via Digg]

Top ten lists are all the rage recently and Phillip Ryu gives us a unique one--the top ten most beautiful applications for Mac OS X. He's got a nice write-up and I agree with most of his choices.

10. Transmission
9. Voice Candy
8. Podcast Maker
7. Transmit
6. Quinn
5. AppZapper
4. Acquisition
3. Coverflow
2. Newsfire
1. Delicious Library

I would add to his list RapidWeaver and Comic Life, both programs that have impressed me with their ease-of-use and well-designed user interfaces. What apps would you add in your own top ten list of most beautiful Mac OS X applications?

A new Packrat version (version 0.84 build 220) has enabled 100% edit-ability of lists and notes on pages, including the create of new lists and notes on pages that previously had none. To facilitate this, a new 'Action' button has been added to Packrat's toolbar, containing 'create new note/list' commands for your productivity pleasure.

To find out more about the update, check the blog of Rod Schmidt, Packrat's developer.

CSS Tweak!, as you might imagine, can optimize and clean up your CSS code with the drag and drop of a file. The widget will report how much smaller your file is going to get, and its description states that your new file is "saved in the same location as the original", so I'm pretty sure this means it doesn't overwrite the original, but proceed (and backup!) with caution.

CSS Tweak! appears to be free and is available from Andy Peatling at his site, CssDev.

I don't mean to post an update every time the developer of Packrat sneezes, but this one is for those anxiously waiting for editing functionality (including when offline) with their Backpack account. I just noticed on Packrat's product page that the feature list now says: "New: edit your lists and notes." Sure enough, it works just like the lists update I mentioned a week ago.

Packrat offers a free demo, and a license will run you a mere $24.95.

In mid-April, Rod Schmidt asked for feedback as to whether he should release editing features in Packrat, his Backpack syncing client, as he develops them. From what I saw, the response was largely in favor of doing so, and yesterday Rod announced on his blog that Packrat 0.8 has taken the first step in this direction. Users can now edit lists in Packrat, then sync up the changes to their Backpack account. This new version can also display inline images (but not linked images) as long as you've already downloaded them, of course. This is a pretty big deal if you're a Backpack fan, especially since I'm fairly certain Packrat is the first app that has this kind of potential to become a true, offline-capable Backpack client.

Swing on by infiniteNIL Software to grab a demo of Packrat, a license will cost $24.95. If you want to get involved or offer some feedback, be sure to check out the Packrat discussion group and and Rod Schmidt's blog for development updates.

We TUAW bloggers certainly love Backpack, the super-simple online PIM from 37 Signals, and it's Dashboard widget is pretty slick too. Naturally, I was excited to see a Dashboard widget pop up in endo this morning for Ta-da List, 37 Signals' one-trick-pony todo list manager. The Ta-da Lists Widget allows you to create new todo lists lists and add items to those lists. It's a pretty straight forward widget for a very straight forward service.

One catch I ran into while setting the widget up, however, is the way the widget first logs into your account. I flipped the widget over, entered my name and password and then the widget asked me to log into Ta-da Lists first through my browser, specifying that I check the "remember me" box. I use Camino, and for some odd reason the widget couldn't catch that I logged into the service, so it wouldn't allow me to start using my lists. Only when I logged in through Safari did the widget kick into gear and download my information.

Aside from the registration hiccup, this widget is really handy. It's fast, slick, and in true 37 Signals form: simple and effective.