Kyle LeBoeuf

Twitter just announced that it acquired Atebits, maker of the popular Tweetie app for iPhone and Mac.

I wonder what this means for other Twitter application developers, like Tweetdeck (which is what I use). Before, Twitter simply owned the platform that these applications were built upon. Now, Twitter actually has a vested interest in this application space and will move to increase it’s exposure amongst the users of Twitter.

Is Twitter going to restrict or possibly even ban other applications in this space?

As Ryan Block tweeted, “As of today, if your app depends on Twitter for anything other than identity or content syndication, you are officially on notice.”

It will be interesting to see how Twitter moves forward with this acquisition.

There has been a ton of heated discussion all over the internet about some changes made to the developer’s agreement in the iPhone OS 4.0 that includes the banning of tools that allow developers to port applications written in other languages not supported by the iPhone. The most prominent of these tools is a part of the new Flash CS5 that is being developed by Adobe.

The tool included in the Flash CS5 product will allow developers to export code written for Flash so that it is supported by the iPhone.

As of iPhone OS 4.0, developers will no longer be able to use these tools. This has caused a severe backlash from some in the developer community and we are beginning to see the battle lines being drawn.

On one hand, you have Apple, who stands by their decision to ban these tools based the fact that applications built with these tools will not get along with features and APIs that are being introduced in the update.

On the other, you have companies like Adobe, who’s product will be left out in the cold. Adobe took such offense at Apple’s move that one it’s prominent employees blasted Apple on his personal blog.

My own personal opinion follows:

==Begin Rant==

Flash sucks. Get over it Adobe.

Apple doesn’t support Flash’s platform because it’s terrible. The number one cause of crashes in OS X are flash-related. The number one cause of crashes in Internet Explorer are plug-in related. Guess which plug-in is the most common on Internet Explorer? Yep. You got it. Flash.

If Adobe would put more effort into improving the stability of its media platform, perhaps companies like Apple would consider adopting it into their devices.

Instead, we get this craptastic plug-in.

Apple is not really to blame here. They are protecting their platform and their users and encouraging open innovating through the use of HTML5 over technologies like Flash.

The clock is ticking Adobe. HTML5 will replace your Flash platform.

==End Rant==

I saw an article on Lifehacker today discussing the hardware and software they use for their work.

The article inspired me to discuss my own gear that I use in my day-to-day work.

Basics:

• Firefox: I am hard pressed to find a tech enthusiast who does not use Firefox. It’s simply awesome. Extensions include: FireFTP, Greasemonkey (and a lot of scripts), Facebook Toolbar (favorite extension, seriously), and Adblock Plus
• Windows Live Writer: I use WLW for all of my blogging, because it’s simply an incredibly powerful, free, WYSIWYG blog publishing application. I can manage all of my blog accounts from one tool. It handles photo uploads, drafting, and tagging, all locally. Awesome.
• Microsoft Office: Yes, I am a purist. Most of you think I probably suck because I don’t use a whole bunch of open-source software, but I’m just not into it that much. I use Word for a lot of my writing and Outlook for email/organizing.
• iTunes: Again, most of you will laugh at me because I use mostly proprietary software solutions, but I think in the case of iTunes, I have a good reason to. A ton of people use iTunes for music organization and jukeboxing because it’s dead simple (the fact that it’s integrated with the best portable media player on the market doesn’t hurt either).
• Twhirl: One of the greatest Adobe AIR applications in existence, as well as one of the best Twitter clients in existence. Simple to use. Also works with a few other networks. While your checking it out, follow me.
• AIM: Now I don’t really have a good excuse for this. The only AIM client I really like is iChat. Unfortunately, I don’t own a Mac.
• MediaShout: MediaShout is a powerful, easy-to-use worship presentation software package used for churches to make flashy presentations with video backgrounds and smooth transitions. Comes with a song and bible database. Able to make changes to presentations on the fly.
• Photoshop: An indispensable application for any guy who runs web sites.
• Dreamweaver: Dreamweaver is good for more than just web design. I use it to edit PHP scripts and pages (such as wordpress files) live on the server, without having to use a text editor and reuploading.

OS:

For the most part, I just stick with Windows Vista Business. There’s some features of Vista that I really like, including the new search/indexing features, and Flip3D.

Hardware:

Under normal circumstances, I have three machines that I use on a regular basis. They are:

• Laptop: Dell Latitude D420 w/ 1.06 GHz single core processor and 1 GB of RAM. Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. This is my most used computer. I am always on this thing. The greatest asset to any student or techie on-the-go
• Desktop 1: A Dell Inspiron desktop bought on the cheap at Wal-Mart. Works just fine, plus it came with a 22” monitor. A 2.6 GHz AMD processor with 2 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard drive. I’m all set
• Desktop 2: A gateway PC with XP media center and a sick 512 MB Radeon Graphics card. While not technically mine, as it resides at the BCM, I use it for most of my media-related work.

Webapps:

• Google Reader: I think this is one the greatest web applications ever made. It’s a powerful tool for aggregating RSS feeds and I can access it from anywhere and with anything with a web browser. I occasionally use ReadAir, a desktop RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader and uses an Aqua-like interface. Built for Adobe AIR.
• Gmail: I am slowly but surely using the gmail interface more and more rather than using the IMAP interface in Microsoft Outlook. Awesome webapp.
• Flickr: One of the first Web 2.0 applications and the best one for photo organization. I use the Flickr Uploadr application to upload and organize photos from my desktop. You can see my Flickr profile here. I also use an AIR app called DestroyFlickr to browse Flickr from the desktop.
• Facebook: Probably the most visited site by me personally, ever. I practically live on Facebook (I dig the new design by the way). You can add me here.
• Twitter: I’m a big user a fan of Twitter. What better way to quickly communicate with my friends? You can follow me here. As stated above, I usually use the Twhirl application on my laptop. I often use the new interface called Tweenky when I’m on another computer. Tweenky is a Twitter client that uses a Gmail-like interface.
• Last.fm: I use Last.fm to track of my listening habits, mainly with the “scrobbling” feature, which keeps track of the songs I play both in iTunes and on my iPod. Check my profile here.

Peripherals:

• iPod Classic: I’m not quite sure what I would do without this thing. Die? I have an iPod interface on my stereo deck in my car. Sweet. My iPod also doubles as an external hard drive. You know, so the space doesn’t go to waste.
• Shure SE110 Sound-Isolation in-ear phones (Black): Before I really started getting into audio and music stuff, I never really made a big deal about headphones. Ever since getting a hold of these, I will never go back to cheap headphones again. Ever.
• Microsoft Wireless Optical Notebook Mouse 3000: I’ve had this cheap mouse for three years and have only had to replace the batteries twice. An awesome mouse, and one of the best selling.

Self-Assessment

I love proprietary software. Why? When something breaks, you usually have a number to call, where you can get professional, helpful support. Money has it’s benefits. The problem with a lot of open source software, is that when it breaks, you usually have to fix it yourself or seek help from the community. This may not be that bad of a thing, but it bothers me, and I am entitled to my own opinions. For the record, I so like a few open source applications, like Wordpress…

by: Kyle [at] kyleleboeuf.com