[Edit: upgrading iTunes seemed to have brought back the App Store as far as I can tell.]
…did the categories section of the App store disappear for you over the weekend? Trying to troubleshoot when this happened for me, I found one article that seemed to say that Apple took out the categories option with the release of iTunes 9 because the App Store was getting overwhelmed with so many low-grade submissions (ironic since they control the approval process!) and so they could focus on the higher quality (read: paid) apps instead.
If true, this is really unfortunate. It's “Librarian 101” that people find information in one of two ways – they search for it and they browse for it. The App Store search option worked well if you knew what you were looking for and the categories structure did a pretty good job of facilitating browsing and enabling discovery if you were going the more serendipitous route.
Say I'm in the mood for a card game – I would click on Categories -> Games -> Card Games then the “Free” and browse through the results until I found something that caught my eye. For example, just this weekend, I found that old kid's favourite, War, for the iPhone.
If I only had Search available, I might never have stumbled on that game (which also has a paid $0.99 version which, who knows, I may also choose to buy after playing the free version for awhile). In fact, I may never have found it, even if I was searching for that game, since “War” is such a common search term as to be meaningless.
To be fair, I do like that they've added a “Highest Grossing” tab – it helps to highlight, not just the $0.99 “burp & fart noise” apps that sell a million copies but those that don't sell as many copies but are more professionally developed – the $99 app that turns your iPhone into a proper GPS, the $4.99 board game classics like Scrabble and Monopoly.
Heck, it might just help convince a lot of users that there is more to the iPhone than Free and/or Almost Free apps. But if that's the intention, taking away the Categories completely isn't the best solution by a long shot!
“Google Voice’s primary offering to consumers—a single, unchanging
phone number—seems innocent enough at first. The service, which began
with one million numbers and is being slowly rolled out by invitation
only in the U.S. (it’s not yet available in Canada), allows users to
take calls from their Google number on as many as six different
existing phones…. To use the service, people still need cellphones and cell plans, but
with one fell swoop Google Voice has already sounded a death knell for
many of the lucrative money-making features that were once the domain
of traditional phone companies…. Even more worrisome for telecom players is the possibility that one
day a tool like Google Voice will also let users make phone calls via
the Internet, using smart phones connected to WiFi hot spots instead of
the carriers’ own cellphone towers.”
In my ongoing quest to give a theme to every single day of the week on this blog, I've decided to start the “Saturday Snap” recurring feature to highlight a photo I've taken – usually from the past seven days but occasionally something from the archives or maybe even a cool photo I find online.
With the iPhone, I'm taking a lot more photos and it's also a lot easier to directly upload them compared to a regular digital camera. (When will we reach a point that every device comes with some sort of wireless capability? Not just digital cameras but our appliances, our toys, our cars – there are so many possibilities!)
Okay, here's the first Saturday Snap – actually from last Saturday which our first day of Pace's swimming lessons. We had in in swimming lessons in Weyburn when he was around a year old and these ones are fairly similar – mostly getting used to the water, lots of songs, working on very basic skills (blowing bubbles, floating with assistance).
[2009-09-17 – Edit: “b” and “c” aren't that close on the keyboard so I wonder what sort of a Freudian slip it was to type “Facecook” in the subject line of this post originally?]
A minor trend I've noticed lately is people posting screen caps of funny Facebook threads they come across…
Yikes – at least Lisa was only inspired to start a recurring Music Monday post after reading my blog instead of doing something really crazy!
That does bring up some random thoughts… – I get contacted by or comments from or connect to about one new library school student (or someone contemplating going to library school) about once every month or two on average. I consider it a huge honour that people find this blog and then find it useful and/or entertaining after that first visit.
– I'm really bad about updating my list of links on the left side to the blogs of people I know (and weeding out the ones that have become inactive) since I usually add these blogs to my NetVibes account and then laze out on doing more. I'll mess around – maybe NetVibes has a widget I can embed or something that would work better.
– this is probably a longer post but I wonder if blogs are becoming a bit passe? With people getting a lot of their information from Facebook and Twitter, where do blogs fit in anymore? Longer, more thoughtful posts for one thing (I guess I'm out on that count! ) Niche information is still easier to find on blogs than on FB or Twitter probably. I don't know – it'll be interesting to see where blogs are at in another year or so.
– And completely unrelated, Reddit has a sub-reddit called “IAmA” where people from various walks of lives post “I Am A [Blank]” and then answer questions from other users, very similar to the idea of Living Libraries that is making the rounds in libraryland lately. Here's one “I Am A Former Children's Librarian – Ask Me Anything” which is interesting although, being Reddit, there are also a few off-topic, goofy or inappropriate questions (well, depending on your POV – it is called “Ask Me Anything” after all!)
A couple of the other bloggers who supported Ryan Meili during the Saskatchewan NDP leadership race have issued challenges to their readers to donate to the Ryan Meili campaign to help pay off the last remaining debt that helped Dr. Meili finish a strong second place to eventual winner, Dwain Lingenfelter.
As the librarian of the group, I think I'll choose 324.6 which is, of course, the Dewey Classification number for political campaigns.
Now, I know most of the readers of this blog are from out-of-province and could give two whiffs about Saskatchewan politics. But I think it's important to show that librarians and politics go beyond former school librarian, Laura Bush.
So my challenge to you is this – if you find this blog entertaining or informative or useful, whether I'm writing about libraries OR politics – why not take a moment to send $3.24 (or $32.46 or $324.60 – if you're a rich librarian – I know, contradiction in terms! ) to Ryan's Donation Page?
Today is the one year anniversary of my starting at RPL (an occasion so auspicious, I commemorated it by posting a link to an album of mellowed-out cover versions of the Footloose soundtrack
on this day one year ago!). Still, this last year has gone in a flash
and it's hard to believe it's been twelve months already.
Here are a few random highlights from the past year…
– dressing as a “Human Whiteboard” for Halloween and getting co-workers to sign the whiteboard (a white t-shirt) with their favourite books and/or authors.
– taking the initiative to create a staff directory for our Intranet
that had photos of all staff members on it (partly out of selfish
reasons – I knew I'd be working with lots of different staff members
throughout the year and it was a quick way to familiarize myself with
everyone. I've had lots of compliments on it from others who find it
equally useful – almost as many as the number of complaints I initially
got from people nervous about having their photo anywhere near the
Internet. Interestingly, those two groups have on at least one
occasion been the same person!)
– I did some pretty heavy lobbying for the Ryan Meili campaign at work
(you don't have to work too hard to read between the lines of a column I wrote for the Sask Library Association's journal about advocacy in the workplace),
especially within our union, and that often got some big pushback (from
co-workers rather than my boss or other managers thankfully) but also
got lots of quiet support (having a few co-workers bring me cheques to
support the Meili Money Bomb was particularly gratifying.) I don't
think I ever told the story of the one event that made me realise,
perhaps more than anything else, that Ryan's result against Link was
going to be a lot closer than most people suspected! I won't tell that
here but promise that I will someday…
– Betting a co-worker one dollar that I wouldn't have to switch offices
during a recent reorganization that happened at RPL. I lost and moved
into my new location almost exactly a week ago.
– The RPL Kid's Christmas Party was a highlight of the year for getting to know my co-workers not just in their work roles but as parents and grandparents too.
– Realising my job title could be shortened to “OD Specialist”
– Asking if that could be printed on my business cards.
– Again, not exactly work-related but deciding to take the bus instead
of driving and paying for downtown parking seemed like a big decision at
the time but has turned out to be a great choice. I get so much
reading and other work done on the bus each day that the commute
(roughly half an hour each way) sails by. (Shea asked me the other
day: “You don't look up? Ever?” “Nope. Because if you do, there
will be a bus person who wants to talk to you!” I defer to Michelle L. who is the master of the librarian-on-the-bus anecdote.)
– oh, and since I'm the master of cheese and sentimentality on this
blog, I will also say that I'm looking forward to the next year to come
and some of the exciting projects the upcoming months will bring!
*I'm
backdating a few posts to this past weekend to keep up the illusion that I never leave the
front of my computer for such things as camping and otherwise spending
quality time with my family.*
“Happy Labour Day” isn't the right phrase when a song like this is still way too relevant in today's world…
*I'm
backdating a few posts to this past weekend to keep up the illusion that I never leave the
front of my computer for such things as camping and otherwise spending
quality time with my family.* The Deal With Disability's “About Me” page sums up the purpose of this eye-opening site very nicely…
“Hey, I’m Eva. I’m 26 and a recent college graduate. I like to write,
to take Digital photographs, and just chill. But this blog is not about
what I like. This blog is about how people treat me. You see, I am
physically disabled. Actually “severely” physically disabled. I have
Cerebral Palsy, which for me means I can’t walk, speak, or use muscles
in traditional ways. I use a power wheelchair to get around and spell
out what I want to say on a letterboard.
This blog will be videos of people treating me bizarrely. My video
camera is mounted to my wheelchair (very discreetly) and I basically
just press record whenever I go out and then edit the good stuff for
you! I will then write my comments on the event, which is usually what
was playing in my inner monologue while these insensitive people were
talking. Hope you enjoy. “
*I'm
backdating a few posts to this past weekend to keep up the illusion that I never leave the
front of my computer for such things as camping and otherwise spending
quality time with my family.*
CustomizedCoupland is an opportunity for you to design your own cover for his new book – for a price of course! Still, a pretty cool mash-up of traditional publishing and cutting-edge technology. Coupland is a natural fit for this as well with his history as an artist and graphic designer. In fact, we just had an exhibit at the RPL's Dunlop Art Gallery that featured a Coupland piece.
