Note: this is a talk-out-loud piece written wearing the hat of an average user - it is not written wearing the hat of the web and software professional - that’s why it is in my personal blog and is written in light conversational style.

In the past I have often said that as cool as I thought many rich-online-applications that seek to replace desktop apps, I hadnt really started using any of them. But recently a shift has started to happen, and it hit me in recent conversations about some images and patterns I used on my site - all of them had been whipped up playing with online applications.

So I guess it is time to reverse the pattern of posts saying “web app x, tested, stopped using” to spread some love to the ones I do end up using.

1. Aviary (& donationcoder)

When I first heard of aviary, I really wanted an account. I registered my interest but alas never made the cut. Luckily for me some of the delighful people on the Donation Coder site had some invitations to share, and I got to get my hands on one. I am amazed as to what can be done with image manipulation online nowadays. I guess I shouldn’t be, having been in the web development field for long enough, but it’s actually different seeing first hand what can be done, and how smooth it works.

Screenshot: Vector editor in opera

Even though I only just dabbled with the tools, I ended up paying for aviary, in part to support them and get them to implement all the promised apps, and in part because the ability to have access to tools such as these from any computer or any OS really will make my life easier when travelling. I can access them on a friend’s computer, I can use an older laptop, or a netbook, because I only need the RAM and CPU to run the application and view the result, not to process the image. And of course I can boot on FreeBSD or opensolaris or anything with a modern browser available, and aviary should work. No more “crap, I wanted to quickly whip something up on this photo but the machine is booted to BSD and running something and I dont want to switch” (of course I might get the whole virtualisation thing finalised and wont have that problem at all anymore, who knows? But that is another story)

As I said, I mostly just dabbled with the apps - especially peacock, which is just like pipes but for images generation.

Screenshot: Peacock with my little triangle experiment

I was playing with triangles, which are my favorite shape (as much as one can have a favorite shape). At the time I was trying to create a set of nice sharp triangles as a basis for a website design - another idea which didnt really make it through. But the background based on triangles I created in peacock was used on this site for a while, and is still my background on my computers. It doesnt look quite that great on white, but it is a transparent png and creates a fascinating depth effect on a dark background (don’t take my word for it, look!)

See this on aviary

Out of the full applications they are planning to do, I am most interested in the font creator and probably the “real medium” painting simulator. And I am a bit disappointed they seem to have cancelled any idea of web design tools. It will be interesting to have access to things like sound editing without having to install any application, since I need it maybe 2-3 times a year (at the moment I just use wavosaur when it happens, since it is a no-install app). We’ll see!

Edited: one thing I forgot to mention about aviary is how people often share their creations, complete with all the actions used in their creation. This makes it a great learning feature, because not only can I admire what people created with the tools, I can also see how they did it.

PS: Donation Coder is a great community, by the way. I joined it a while back because I wanted to donate something back for some apps I was using, and as an addict to independent software this was a great place - full of addicts like me, and developers. It is also a very supportive learning community. I should write a bit about them, but just go check the site, the software offered on it, and the discussion in the forums.

2. Colourlovers

I have been working on a slight update of the colors used on different sections of the site (not that you could tell, like half of what I ever do it hasn’t made it onto anything visible). Now I am a)lazy b)not a designer so I thought it would be fun to use a webapp to play with color schemes. So I found Colour Lovers a few months back and played with it a bit. Created several palettes at random, some of which became the currently half-finished themes on the site.
I also played at creating patterns from those palettes and others, and in spite of the rather limited set of available patterns (especially ones that use the full set of 5 colors), I had a bit of fun. Since I was just messing about I cannot comment for the app’s suitability for production work, at first glance I would say it is not sufficient. But it might be a good one to get a bit of inspiration in a way that does not kill concentration, prior to going to work in the professional tools.

Screenshot: Colourlovers

I particularly enjoyed the option to submit an image and have the system offer colors from that - although I mostly found that some of my favorite photos of my own turned out to make rather lousy color palettes. What works in a photo does not work in a flat color setting.

In the end though, Colourlovers, like other very narrow fun-social websites before them (eg: wordie) is something I can see myself using in short bursts followed by months of forgetting about them, especially since for the pure work of palettes and texture, aviary mentioned just above has some pretty nifty tools.

See the patterns on colourlovers

both files are to be considered released on CC license, attribution required (a link to this post would be enough)

People who follow me on twitter or friendfeed cannot have missed the fact that I have been pondering buying a new phone for a few months now. Mostly the 2 things I wanted to add were GPS and Wifi (and some smartphone/3G functionality, I guess). Of course I am a slow and reasonable person when it comes to purchases over £100 (up to a year’s pondering, as it was with my camera) so I had to explore alternatives. I thought I would mostly play with some old gadgets as a way to learn a bit more about how I would use GPS (or not) to help me know what is worth it or not when buying my new device. But I shot myself in the foot because it works too well using 1 accessory and some java software… and it makes it harder to justify buying a new phone!

My current phone is the clamshell Sony Ericsson Z710i - hardly an up to date phone, I bought it in April 2007. It has served me well, apart from some well documented (i.e. not just me!) occasional problems with random shutdowns (quite annoying when they happen when you open the phone to answer it!).

I have been considering a new phone, something small and smart with wifi and GPS and all up-to-date features. Alas nobody does a clamshell with everything (why?) so I was considering the Nokia E51 / E52 / E55, but also being tempted by an Android phone. A new phone is not cheap though, especially for people like me who dont like contracts (and if I take a contract it’s 12 months, not more)

So what did I do? I geeked out and bought 2 devices! (Please indulge me a spot of linking to amazon affiliate - one shameless attempt to fund a few pennies towards my geeky addictions )

At first sight it seems an odd idea - but then I understood: this is squarely aimed at people who like to exercise and listen to music. You get the wired stereo handset/FM antenna, with the addition of a tiny box which is a GPS receiver which allows you to track your workouts (speed, mileage etc.).

It’s very easy to use, as when you first connect it the phone detects it and suggests downloading the software. That software is basic: a mileage/speed tracker, a gps tracks tracker, a demo of (very basic) mapping (there are better options imo), and the very useful “mark my spot so I can find my way back later” type app. If the apps suit your needs this is as easy as it gets, no configs, no hassle, all automated.

Other software can often work with it, but you have to configure “GPS receiver” as a serial device, comm=AT5 or something along those lines. Not all GPS applications offer this, many are bluetooth only, so it does limit the choice a bit. I did find at least 10 that did work, though, so it’s not as limiting as it might seem, and of course on newer phones there might be more.

Pros:

- if you run, walk, cycle listening to music on one of those Sony music phones, this adds GPS with almost no additional weight or clutter
- powered by the phone
- super easy to use, and good reception as far as I could tell
- easily lasts 6 hours (i tested!) and probably a whole day
- quite a few apps can be made to work with it (it’s a “serial device” comm=AT5)

Cons:

- powered by the phone, so both it and the phone need charging every day (if you listen to music and keep the GPS on)
- only works on 1 company’s phones, and not all
- not all GPS apps can be made to work with it

This is a small thin box about the shape of my phone but 1/2 the tickness (perhaps less) - it pairs via bluetooth on the phone and works with many applications automatically. I suspect if you have a Nokia phone there might be apps you can get via your phone direct, but for my phone I had to go browse around to find them. But find them I did, and every app that ran on my phone found it and worked with it (you would hope so, though, it is the point of bluetooth!)

Pro:
- longer battery life than the previous solution
- excellent reception (based on other people’s tests, i have no idea how to test)
-works with more apps
- bluetooth, so can work with all brands

Con:
- heavier
- additional gizmo to carry (and lose!), and additional charger (unless you have a Nokia phone using the same charger)

(in the US? try: Nokia LD-3W Wireless GPS Module but it is a silly price!)

I tried a few apps but ended up with 2 that seem to do what I wanted at the time (tracking where I am). I have not yet tested any of the “directions to goal” or “voice directions” apps because usually I dont need that.

The two applications I found best (out of a totally random, short and biased “if you dont make sense within 1 minute you’re off my phone” test)

http://www.gpsj.eu/

reconfigurable GPS information screen with direction pointer, compass, heading, distance to the waypoint and many more,
compass with waypoint pointer,
track map with panning, zooming and pointing,
location of 20000 town&cities in Europe,
the rest of the world downloadable,
detailed POI databases for bigger countries (eg. about 100000 POIs in Germany; maps of other countries generated on request),
track export to the following formats: GPX, Google and CSV.

GPSJ can import and export tracks. It costs 7 euros per phone. The security around the installation caused me some grief (o2 connection dropped partway through and I couldnt redownload, so had to wait for support to email me the file)

2. Track My Journey

http://www.trackmyjourney.co.uk/

TrackMyJourney is a website set up to manage, view and share tracks recorded from GPS devices. TMJ-Mobile is a Java mobile phone application that uses GPS data to provide a number of functions, including navigation, location tracking, map display and route plotting. It receives its location coordinates by communicating via Bluetooth with a separate GPS receiver, or via the phones internal GPS if supported. The phones built-in GPRS/3G/GSM data connection is then used to send its location over the internet to the TrackMyJourney website where you can then share your location and recorded tracks with your friends.

TrackMyJourney requires you to register on the website, then you can get the software via your mobile. It is probably seamless on a smartphone but it was a bit annoying with my old phone, i dont have email set up so had to type it all in etc. The software is extremely full featured, works with maps from OpenStreetMap, and I was impressed enought to donate 10 euros already. Although I now see the software comes in a lite and a pay-for version, so I am going to go and haggle with the developer!

Now that I know all this, which would I buy?

I’m not much of a jogger/cyclist, so the cool features of the Sony headset are a bit lost on me - although it was quite nice while travelling on the train listening to podcasts and watching my progress. Since I am not sure I would stick to the Sony brand for my next phone, the bluetooth option seems smarter.

Although since I have both, I can see plenty of times where I would still pack the Sony instead of carrying an extra device, especially since my 2 programs of choice happily work with both devices.

Note: There is a new version of the Nokia bluetooth GPS (LD-4W see left), it is smaller, has a better chip, but less battery life. It’s a tough call which of the two is the best buy, I’d probably go for the older model (the one I have) and the battery life.