I’m using “BSG – Phone Ring” as my ringtone (it’s the sound the telephones make on the ship) and the others are handy alarm notification sounds.

Download the ringtones

I’m fine with Apple deciding that an app is unacceptable if it crashes the iPhone. If it hijacks the cellular network. If it leaks memory, data, or something.

I’m not fine with Apple censoring apps. They hold the exclusive entry for software to get installed on an iPhone or iPod Touch. There is no other authorized way to install apps, without going through the Apple app store. And that means Apple has a very serious responsibility to act honourably, and in the best interests of its customers.

The latest app store controversy is swirling around Ninjawords. An application that provides a slick UI on top of the online Wiktionary dictionary database.

Someone at Apple decided to test the app by explicitly and manually searching for “fuck” “shit” and a few other stopwords. The software was designed to disable text autocompletion for questionable terms, so the only way to find them is to type them in yourself. But the developers missed “cunt” in their autocomplete filter in the last version. So Apple responds by slapping the app with a restricted 17+ rating – meaning kids don’t have access to a good dictionary on their Apple mobile devices.

Apple, this is not cool. You don’t get to censor content, especially content in a FUCKING DICTIONARY. Jesus fucking h. christ.

ps. this screenshot was taken of the Dictionary.app that came pre-installed on my Mac – the same Dictionary.app that my 6 year old son has unrestricted access to.

Update: Phil Schiller responded to John Gruber as a result of his post on DaringFireball.net – the response is a good one, but John’s take is pretty much the same as mine – even if Apple doesn’t censor the app themselves, there is pressure put on developers to censor themselves to avoid age-restrictive ratings. The inconsistent application of these ratings means writing an app can be a bit of  crap shoot. But, Schiller’s email is a very good sign.

It’s probably a good thing that it doesn’t record the sounds because I’d have to start an @dnorman Theramin Music Hour Podcast, full of wacky Star Trek theme music and transporter sound effects…

ps. yeah. I get how lame I am for playing with a theramin simulator for half an hour on a friday evening, then blogging about it…

My current favorite add-on apps? Twinkle. Wurdle. X-Plane. Cube Runner. Asphalt. Countdown. Line Rider. Seismometer. And the shortcut to Google Reader.

What’s cool is that now all of my blogs can be managed via my iPod Touch using a native application!

For example, I used dlnorman.ucalgaryblogs.ca as the blog address, and gave it my login info. It will work with multiple blogs, too – but each blog needs to be configured separately.

We’ve got students coming to class with web-enabled devices (laptops, iPod Touch, iPhone, smart phones, etc…) and it makes sense to take advantage of this stuff wherever possible. Instead of making students buy and lug around yet another piece of gear, I’m looking for an effective way to provide assessment and response functionality via a web browser.

I don’t care if it’s a custom app that needs to be installed on a server, or a third party thingamawacky. Just that it’s accessible by a browser, and can be used in the context of a class (so, One Big Shared App would need to have rooms or classes or something to help organize the communication). The web interface for the student responses needs to be lightweight – no java, no flash – so that it can run anywhere (or as close to anywhere as is physically possible) and must be easy to use.

Ideally, the web app should do handy things like collecting stats from responses, charting the breakdown of the responses, letting people ask questions to be answered by the class, etc… It should be displayable on The Big Screen from a computer so the class can see the results in a presentation format. Bonus points for storing the responses for later use as well, and providing a downloadable dump of the data for crunching if needed.

Has anyone found anything that serves this purpose?

iPhone – I agree that the iPhone is an amazingly compelling device. Even if it was just a wifi-enabled iPod that allowed web browsing and email, it would be worth the money. If I was in charge of a department, I would issue each staff/faculty member an iPhone (unactivated – they can activate or migrate their own cell phone plans if needed). It would be money well spent, in order to have everyone able to play with the various collaboration apps we all use, anytime/anywhere.

Digital Commons – this one has me very interested, and a bit puzzled. Unconventional wisdom suggests that students all (or at least largely) have their own gear – how many students don’t already have laptops? How many don’t have recent hardware available? The idea of the Digital Commons as an access point for site-licensed software is interesting, though.

I did start to wonder about the need for site-licensed installed application software, though, in light of available web based tools for story-telling as well as free and/or open source applications for website authoring, video editing, document editing, etc…

What is the role of the 15 Digital Commons? Are they primarily for faculty members? students? Are they primarily training facilities? workspaces? collaboration spaces? For classes, or individuals?

The original Learning Commons at UCalgary had a lab for faculty members to come to work on projects. It offered video editing, image editing, etc… stations, and was used pretty well. But, that was before it was common for these applications to run as well (or better) on the faculty members’ own new hardware. The lab has been closed for almost 2 years now. There is a separate student “Information Commons” computer lab, as well as several computerless work/collaboration areas for students to work on stuff. I don’t have any metrics, but it looks like most students are working in the campus food court with their own laptops, rather than camping out in labs.

If the Digital Commons is a place for accessing site licensed software, can they take it with them? Install on their own hardware?

I’m really not meaning to be negative here, just really curious about how the DC is positioned.

Hot Teams – striking up a hot team to look at Pligg in an educational setting. I’m very interested in that particular project. And I wish I had the clout to pull of similar projects here at the TLC. I mean, I can look at new tools, but it’s largely informal and on my own. Being able to say “hey! let’s assign a few staff members to investigate this” really means a lot to being able to take the time to properly make sense of things.

iPhone, redux – when conversation returned to the great custom iPhone web apps, my first reaction was “but, isn’t the iPhone supposed to be the ‘real web’, not some custom version?” – I’m wondering if spawning a new generation of “built for iPhone” badges on websites might actually do more harm than good. We don’t need another browser/platform war – we’re still recovering from the last round.

Update: they’ve posted the show notes and info for episode 28.

Upon visiting Rogers’ website, I was presented with a “language preference” page that, in my opinion, is rather badly crafted.

Maybe I’m being overly sensitive, but I really don’t like being referred to as a “Consumer” – it casts the relationship between an individual and a company in rather explicit terms.

Here’s the message I sent Rogers:

Will Rogers be providing service for the Apple iPhone? I would like any information you can provide on plans to roll out service. Further, I am holding off on purchasing a new cell phone until the iPhone is available in Canada.

ps. the “For Consumers” choice on the front page of your website is demeaning. It might be more appropriate to relabel that “For Individuals” – casting all non-business visitors to your website as “consumers” makes it pretty explicit that the primary goal of the website is for us to, well, consume. Better to treat us as individuals, rather than sources of revenue.

Update: 2007/07/09 – I just received this response from Rogers:

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, we appreciate your use of
online customer service.

In your recent email, you have informed us that you wish to inquire when
the new Apple iPhone will be available through Rogers and regard the
format of the website.

Description
On Tuesday, January 9, 2007, Apple announced the unveiling of their new
iPhone, a combination mobile phone/digital music player/camera

Availability
” The iPhone will first be introduced in North America
” Cingular is the only wireless carrier to launch the iPhone in the
United States
” Rogers is actively working with Apple to launch the iPhone in Canada
as soon as possible and will be the exclusive provider of the iPhone in
Canada
” Apple is planning to introduce the iPhone in Europe (Q4 2007) and Asia
(2008)
” Please be advised that Rogers will be offering the iPhone exclusively
in Canada
” Launch date and pricing for Canada are not yet available
” Other Canadian wireless carriers will not launch the iPhone, Rogers
will be the only Canadian wireless carrier to offer the iPhone

To learn more about the iPhone, you may visit www.apple.com/iphone.

Unfortunately we are unaware when new products and services will be
released until they are launched to the consumer market. We suggest you
visit www.rogers.com/phones because when new products are released they
are listed here.

We would also like to assure you that we take your concerns very
seriously and we appreciate any feedback that you can provide us. We
appreciate your feedback because this is information that we can use to
address any similar problems that may arise in the future. On the whole
it makes us better able to address our customers concerns. We are
presently changing the website.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused and thank you
for choosing Rogers.com.