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The YouTube Plug-In Needs Some Lovin’

If you were to tap an embedded YouTube video on a web page, it would slide into full-screen view, and you’d watch it in all its glory. But, what if you want to mark it as a favorite? Perhaps you’d like to see who published it, or what commentary they posted with it. Of course, that’s kinda the point of YouTube: it’s a social video site.

But, alas, even though there is a dedicated YouTube app on iPhone, you aren’t given the choice to view the video in YouTube.app, where you could do all those things, and even subscribe to the publisher’s channel.

My recommendation would be to follow the example set by iPod.app: there’s a place for special buttons on either side of the volume slider. Just like the chapter select button, or the audio track select button, there could easily be an “open in YouTube.app” button in the plug-in’s playback interface.

As it stands now, we usually don’t even know the title of the embedded video. To get the info we seek, we have to guess at search terms based on the video content, and just hope that the video’s author properly tagged it with keywords.

As you may or may not know, mint.com has been bought by Intuit. You may also know that Intuit is…well…not highly regarded among people who care. Lots of people have been deleting their Mint accounts upon hearing the news. Here’s my dilemma: there’s a fresh new update for Mint.app in AppStore. The “feature list” contains some appealing stuff, so my first instinct is to install it. But. What if there’s something else in this update? There are no standards for what goes into those “changelogs,” if you can call them that. I’ve been burned before when an app update conveniently neglected to tell me about some new “feature” or the removal of a feature that I didn’t want removed. Or ads. iTunes used to keep archived older versions of iPhone apps in the Mobile Applications folder. Somewhere in the last few versions, it stopped keeping those old versions. Rolling back to an old version isn’t as easy as it once was. So. Do I install this update? If I don’t, do I really want to be staring that damned badge on AppStore.app in perpetuity?

As you may or may not know, mint.com has been bought by Intuit. You may also know that Intuit is…well…not highly regarded among people who care. Lots of people have been deleting their Mint accounts upon hearing the news.

Here’s my dilemma: there’s a fresh new update for Mint.app in AppStore. The “feature list” contains some appealing stuff, so my first instinct is to install it.

But.

What if there’s something else in this update? There are no standards for what goes into those “changelogs,” if you can call them that. I’ve been burned before when an app update conveniently neglected to tell me about some new “feature” or the removal of a feature that I didn’t want removed. Or ads.

iTunes used to keep archived older versions of iPhone apps in the Mobile Applications folder. Somewhere in the last few versions, it stopped keeping those old versions. Rolling back to an old version isn’t as easy as it once was.

So. Do I install this update? If I don’t, do I really want to be staring that damned badge on AppStore.app in perpetuity?

Those Fancy 3.0 Features

I’m in Safari. I tap a link for a map. I’m taken out to Maps.app.

I’m in Maps.app. I view details on a business, and tap the listing for its website. I’m bounced through the Springboard to Safari.app.

I open up WhereTo.app, search for cool stuff to do, and it’s plotted on a map. Right in the app. Amazing, huh? Now, get this: I tap a pin on the map, check out the details, and I tap a link to see a website. It opens the page right there! It’s amazing what they can do with that fancy new SDK, huh?

Huh.

iDisk

I religiously checked AppStore for it every single day, multiple times a day, starting when they first announced it. I think it was at least a month.

I deleted it a few minutes after I installed it. Sure, it’s great to share things from your iDisk while you’re mobile. But seriously, I can’t upload anything directly to iDisk via the iDisk app? Having the app on my phone was like having a plate in front of me, but I wasn’t allowed to eat…I was only allowed to push my food around my plate.

This Accessory is Incompatible With Your Device

…even though it’s worked exactly as designed for the past two-plus years since iPhone launch.

Also known as the “Gratuitous Solicitation for Accessory Purchase” dialog. At first, I fully bought into the notion that Apple just wants to make sure that everyone knows that cell phones don’t have to make that horrible noise in your car/desktop speakers. Very nice of them. But, truth be told, I’m very much at peace with the minor GSM noise I get from time to time. I’m also very happy with my self-installed car audio system, and don’t want to have to pull apart my dashboard and console again, this time with the sole purpose of killing that ridiculous warning.

Give me a preference to toggle. I promise to blame you less for the GSM noise than I currently do for the hatred I have for that dialog. By the time I die, I think I will have tallied up several days worth of wasted time dismissing that redonkulous dialog.

Are You SURE You Don’t Want to Pay Twice?

“You have already purchased this item. To download it again for free, select OK.”

Now, I’ll admit that this does indeed provide me with a tiny bit of useful information. But if I look at it as a choice, then it starts to look ridiculous. Because, at this point in the transaction, the only choice I need to make is whether or not I want to pay for the item. But…haven’t I already made that choice? To get to this modal dialog, I had to tap on a button labeled $2.99, and then tap another button that said “Buy Now.” If I didn’t already own the app, I’d be charged immediately (or prompted for my password, if I haven’t entered it within the past several minutes).

AppStore knows I’m logged in. It’s capable of finding out if I already own the item at which I am looking. So, why am I given a rather superfluous decision to make, when I’ve already made a more important decision based upon insufficient data (not to mention misleading UI)? More to the point, who in hell would ever tap the “Cancel” button, upon reading this dialog? “Oh, it’s free this time? Well, nevermind then, I guess I didn’t mean it when I tapped the ‘Buy Now’ button.”