Grant Buell's shared items
I’ve been asked by several DF readers if there’s a way to put Newsstand into a folder. Officially, no, there isn’t. The reason is that Newsstand is really a folder — it’s just a magic folder created by and controlled by the system, not you. And iOS doesn’t let you put folders into folders.
Here’s a trick from Dave Caolo that will let you do it. (And because Newsstand really is just a folder, the same trick lets you put any folder into another folder.)
It’s clearly a bug though: once you do this, you cannot open any such folder-in-a-folder, and if you try, Springboard (the app that is the iOS home screen) will crash. So this is really only useful for those of you who not only don’t want Newsstand, but who can’t even bear the thought of stashing it on your last home screen.
iOS: Turntable.fm, one of our favorite new music discovery and collaborative playlist services, has released an iPhone app, so you can listen to your social radio stations no matter where you are.
Turntable.fm, if you haven't used it, is a very cool service that puts up to 5 users in a room as "DJs", where they can upload or search for tracks and create collaborative playlists. You can either DJ or just enter a room and listen, and chat with other users as you do. The iPhone app brings all the awesome features of the webapp to mobile devices, including thumbs up and thumbs down, chat and even DJing. That's right—even if you're sitting on your iOS device, you can DJ a room using the music on Turntable's servers. In our tests, the app was a tad slow, but worked without too many problems. You can even leave the app and keep the music playing.
Turntable.fm is a free download for iPhone.
Turntable.fm | iTunes App Store via ReadWriteWeb
You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
Architecture firm BNIM has posted a time-lapse video of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts' construction from summer 2009 to summer 2011. It's pretty cool stuff, although it could use a soundtrack.…
[ Read more ]
MG Siegler reporting on the upcoming Gowalla app that is being announced today at TechCrunch Disrupt and will soon be shipping:
The main middle tab is now “Guides”. Here you’ll find curated travel guides for various places around the world. For example, if you load up the app in San Francisco, you’ll see the San Francisco guide, as well as the East Bay guide and the Stanford guide. You can quickly scroll through other guides not near you as well. And Gowalla has the ability to make special guides on the fly. For example, they made a TC Disrupt guide for event-goers.
Clicking on these guides loads up a bit of information about the city as well as all of the must-see spots. Again, because Gowalla has years worth of location data, they’re able to easily populate robust guides. Some of the locations are curated, some are based on check-in data and people favoriting places. The Gowalla “Highlights” feature also plays a role here.
This is a fantastic move for Gowalla. I have always fancied the app and its service, but I never could sustain using it every day when I was out to lunch, out to coffee, out shopping, out on a date, etcetera. This change in focus towards “traveling and storytelling” sounds like just the right move.
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When was the last time you went a week without something? Perhaps something you enjoy. Perhaps something that you struggle with. Perhaps something you are sensing transition with.
Maybe, for some of you, you have done so or are doing so right now due to circumstance. There has been bad weather and flooding in the eastern United States. For some that has meant a week without power, telephone or Internet. For far too many in the world at large a week without food or shelter is a regular occurrence.
This is a question I have been sitting with for a while now. I think it is often times important to do without in order to get a better sense of our place within. Perhaps a week without Twitter or Facebook will help you better understand the value that you derive from it. Perhaps a week without caffeine will help you better frame your dependence on it. Perhaps a week without your iPhone will help you evaluate your use of it.
The week is intended to help one see the advantages as well as the disadvantages so that one may determine the best approach. That may be a revelation that the thing you went without holds an important place in your daily life. It might also determine that after a week you could do another until you find you did not need it at all.
Starting next week I’m going to go without something. I have not quite decided what that is yet (hence the “next week”). I’ll announce what it is next Monday so that I may be kept accountable. This is not a directive nor am I trying to start some movement. I’m just asking a question aloud in the hopes that the asking may help others as well. If you too are inspired to go a week without something, I welcome the camaraderie and would love to hear about your experiment and experience.
Stay tuned.
Eric Chahi's classic game "Another World" (also known as "Out of this World," from its US release) is finally coming to iOS at the end of September. BulkyPix will be publishing the title, and controls will come in two flavors, either as full touchscreen controls or through a virtual D-pad. Fans of this game really love it, and will probably be happen to see it finally available on Apple's portable devices. The title will be US $4.99, and available as a universal app.
I always found the game really hard, but that problem could be fixed (or worsened, depending on your preference): This version of the game will provide both easier and harder difficulty levels, as well as remastered sound, and full Game Center achievement support. We'll have to see what the game is like when it comes out on September 22nd.
Another World coming to iOS this month originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
(Animal Shelter | Omaha, NE, USA)
(A customer walks in with two young dogs.)
Me: “Hello. How may I help you?”
Customer: “Yes, these two dogs belonged to my mother, who recently passed away. Her dying wish was to have them buried with her.”
Me: “I don’t understand.”
Customer: “I would like them euthanized, so I can have them cremated and put into her casket with her.”
Me: “How old are they? Do they have any health issues?”
Customer: “They are two years old. They are healthy, but you need to put them down, now! I need them to be buried with my mother, so they can join her in heaven!”
Me: “Ma’am, we will not euthanize two perfectly healthy dogs.”
Customer: *while walking out* “Fine! You people are heartless!”
Turntable.fm is good, because it's a fun way to listen to music online with your friends. Turntable.fm is bad, because it'll suck your already strained attention span down a black hole. Nonetheless, you should be on it. Here's how.
Turntable is a musical chat room. You like talking to your friends. You like playing your favorite songs. You like hearing good songs you didn't pick. Turntable puts all of these nice things into one cartoonish online dance floor. Five DJs at a time queue up tracks of their choosing, while everyone else sits back and enjoys. Or doesn't enjoy! If a dud comes on, the audience can vote it off the speakers with enough dislike clicks. Or if a DJ's playing good stuff, you can reward them with likes, which translate into points, which are worn around as a badge of distinguished taste.
Simple enough, right? Well, like anything else on the internet, when you put a bunch of people into a small space and expect them to all get along perfectly, there will be bumps. But it doesn't have to be bad! In fact, Turntable makes it pretty easy for everyone to live and listen together in peace, so long as you stick to some decent ground rules.
Turntable offers the option to make either a private room that won't be listed in their directory (and is accessible only via a particular URL), or to open your party hut to the listening public.
If all you want is to listen to music with some officemates, friends, or other intimate avatars, you might be best served by keeping the door closed. A private room means not having to deal with strangers. No "Hey, you took my DJ spot" or "Why does this guy keep playing Enya" moments. (Side note: I love Enya, so that guy is probably me).
The DJ booth slots are the most coveted pieces of real estate in Turntable. Just like in real life, everyone loves DJs, and they shower the audience with their inexhaustible coolness and playlist dominion. Everyone wants to be the DJ. But there are only five DJ spots. And it's first come, first serve. So this can be problematic! Some Turntable communities are well-moderated, and have a functioning list to make things more fair, and to prevent DJ monopolies.
When you arrive in a new room, ask if there's a system. If so, abide by it. Turntable, despite all the snobbery (FLEET FOXES AGAIN?) is about enjoying music with other people. So don't be a sociopath and snipe a DJ seat if an opening appears. It may sound utopian, and maybe a little naive, but damnit, we can make this work if we suppress our natural internet tendency for absolute selfishness for only a brief moment.
Now this is a tricky one, because it's enveloped so deeply in our own personal tastes. But basically, don't play songs you know will annoy people. It's ironically funny to play Who Let the Dogs Out, once, even if you know it's going to be booed off the queue within seconds. But using your DJ powers to force trash songs on your audience is obnoxious. The same goes for equally asinine choices like static, podcasts, presidential addresses, and the like. Corny songs are funny in moderation, but don't use Turntable as a means of pranking strangers.
Patience is tough! Especially when you've got that MP3 banger at the top of your queue, and can't wait for everyone to tell you how great it is. Maybe you should just downvote the guy next to you?
No. This is just basic internet Don't Be a Dick stuff. If the system is ever going to work, it has to be universal. If everyone skips everyone to get to their turn, nobody will ever play and music. The entire experiment will collapse under the weight of pure web ego. So just wait.
Turntable is charming to a fault. But it can dig its sonic claws into you pretty deeply, and once you're grabbed, your homework, job, or hungry child might not seem like a priority. So again: moderation. It's fine to duck in and chit chat for a bit, but trying to be the dance king of Club Turntable is a surefire way to get nothing done that day. Also, the bobbing cartoon character disco bonanza aesthetic doesn't really play well with boss looking over your shoulder moments.
So play wisely. Listen wisely. Be nice. If you don't like a song, vote it down or leave. Turntable is one of the few places online where people going out of their way to be horrible to one another seems to be the exception rather than the rule. If you consider yourself a good Turntable citizen, head on over to the Gizmodo 24/7 X-Treme Party Zone 3000—just be ready for a lot of Enya and Hoobastank.
“GO HOME” is the edgy new Iowa GOP slogan for the young people. When a group of students visited the state capitol to testify about the effects of budget cuts on higher education, GOP State Senator Shawn Hammerlinck told the students, “I do not like it when students actually come here and lobby me for funds,” because democracy is over now and THERE WILL BE NO LOBBYING unless it is done by old men with bags of gold coins. Shawn Hammerlinck does not appreciate hearing from constituents when they want to ask him for money. That is his job, to ask people for money, to elect him, so he can yell at voters. Video after the jump!
“I want to thank you for joining us and though I have to concede, your time speaking before us is kind of a tad intense. It’s probably a pretty new experience. You probably prepared for it for days and you sat there in front of us trying to make sure your remarks were just right, and that’s a good thing. But actually spending your time worrying about what we’re doing up here, I don’t want you to do that. Go back home. Thanks, guys.”
Was Hammerlinck an early victim of education cuts, or did he only sleep through English class so he could use redundancy winners like “kind of a tad” in the face of students who actually want to learn? Sorry, learners, your education was not meant for you to start “worrying” about what your government is up to.
Why does everybody like school so much anyway? Do they like being tortured by SWAT teams? [Iowa Senate Democrats]
