Web App | Castellini on Computers - Computer help for beginners

Posts Tagged: web app

General Computer Tips — 4 Comments
10
Feb 09

How to add a web application to the iPhone home screen – Video Tip

Popular demand (among new iPhone users) prompted me to add this quick, yet helpful iPhone tip. Don’t worry non-iPhone users…there is a tip for you at the end of the article…keep reading or skip to the end!

To add a web page or application you frequently use to your iPhone home screen:

Start Safari
Navigate to the page you want to add
Tap the Add Bookmark button at the bottom of the screen (+ sign)
Tap Add to Home Screen
Type the name you want to attach to the bookmark or accept what is given
Tap Add in the upper right hand corner

That’s it, easy, but extremely handy!Watch the short video below to see this tip in action.

After six plus months with my iPhone, I barely remember my trusty old Treo. I still hope that Apple (or some enterprising programmer) adds universal search to it and copy and paste, but otherwise the iPhone has exceeded my expectations.

For you non-iPhone users, I recommend this classic tip:

10 Skills EVERY computer user should have (or learn)

Hardware Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — 4 Comments
4
Aug 08

What I learned in the first 4 days of my iPhone 3G

I picked up my new iPhone late on Thursday night, worked with it on Friday, then left with it for a quick trip to see my brother and my first and only nephew. Prior to this phone, I have used some sort of smartphone since 2000…all Palm software based. Prior to that I used Palm handheld computers since about 1997.

I decided to move to the iPhone because I felt that the Palm innovation had stagnated…about 5 years ago. Plus, with all the innovation and development happening around the iPhone, I knew it was a great opportunity to take my smartphone usage even further than the Palm based systems had. A real quick word about any smartphone; they aren’t met for every cell phone user. Smartphones are designed for people who want to check email, lookup information on the web, get maps, send text messages, add specialty programs like conversion programs, time trackers and much more to their phone.

Enough blabber, here are some of my thoughts about the iPhone after only four days of use:

The screen is absolutely stunning…clear, bright, and responsive.
I really miss being able to select text and use copy and paste.
I thought that visual voice mail was a gimmick…until I tried it. Voice mail on the iPhone is a sheer pleasure and saves a lot of time. Visual voice mail allows users to listen to voice mail in any order, rewind pause, and fast forward messages easily, and more.
Now I know why Treo users were/are upset that Palm never added Wifi to their phones. The ability to use a Wifi connection is awesome and makes the web function very quick…even though the 3G network from AT&T works well too.
The mapping and integrated GPS and searchable maps make traveling and looking for addresses and places to eat or get a coffee a snap.
The third party iPhone application developers and web application developers are innovating in this space like no other. In a year, I think the iPhone might actually be able to cook and drive my car! Most of the applications are quick, useful, and joy to use.

These are just a few of my initial observations, but so far, the iPhone has not disappointed at all and has in fact exceeded my expectations for how I would use it and how it would function. The screenshot above is an actual capture of one of my iPhone launch screens and shows some of the programs that I’ve added to the iPhone already.

Hardware Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
12
May 08

Eee PC 900

The new ASUS Eee PC 900 is finally available in the United States. Like its release earlier this year in Asia, the 900 version is selling like hot cakes in the U.S. too. I have been using the 4G version of the original ASUS Eee PC since November 2007 and wrote a few articles about it that can be found here. I originally bought it to try it out and see what all the fuss was about, but quickly became attached to its ultra portability and usablity.

The main differences in the new 900 model versus the older model are a larger screen (9″ vs. 7″) and a larger hard drive (20 GB vs. 4-8 GB). The larger screen brings a higher resolution which will make working with some web applications easier and require less horizontal scrolling. The hard drives are solid state (no moving parts) flash drives. These little gems aren’t meant to completely replace your computer or main laptop…although they could. The target market is travelers, kids, and computer enthusiasts who wouldn’t mind a second computer for traveling or for kid’s web surfing and document creation. The keyboards on these machines are small, but easy to adapt to with a little practice.

The Eee PC’s I linked up in this article come pre-installed with a Linux operating system. Which means, you won’t have to worry about installing, configuring, and keep updating anti-virus and anti-spyware software. However, if you must have Windows, the Eee PC also released the same Eee PC 900 version with Windows XP and a 12 GB solid state drive (the drive is smaller to make up for the cost of Windows). Once you see one of these little marvels and see it properly demonstrated, you will realize how functional they really are for a significant segment of the computing population.

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Application Tips / Internet Tips — 1 Comment
6
Mar 08

Zoho Sheet – Video Tip

Last week, I gave you a short video tour of Zoho.com’s Writer word processing application. This week the tour continues with the Sheet program (spreadsheet) from Zoho. Like the word processor program, Sheet offers all of the features that 90% of spreadsheet users need or use, including:

Mulitple sheets (workbooks)
Charting
Advanced calculations
Auto formatting
Link external data
Online collaboration
and much more.

Watch the short video below to see how far online applications from Zoho.com can take you.

Hardware Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
7
Sep 07

iPhone Web Applications

I setup my third iPhone today. I like them (especially now that they are $200 cheaper), but I still prefer the Treo. The web experience on an iPhone is superior to any phone I’ve used to date and some useful and fun web based applications are starting to develop specifically for iPhone users. This site links up their Top 25 iPhone Web Applications.

Riding Shotgun with Adam — 1 Comment
30
Mar 07

Future Windows Prediction

By now it is no secret that I have a unique super power. I can see the future of technology. Too many cell phone radio waves to my brain have caused me to have premonitions about the future of technology.

Two days ago, I was carried away in vision and I saw the future of Microsoft.

Microsoft knows they shot themselves in the foot with Vista. They knew before it was released that they would have to create a demand for it since it was replacing a superior product.

Now even the government is looking into getting away from Microsoft products. Linux seems to be the most popular option. This is where the prediction comes in.

Microsoft's next major operating system will not be Windows at all. It will be MS Linux. Remember MS DOS? What about MS SQL? Office 2007 uses MS XML. Microsoft will build their own version of Linux.

However, the new program will only run Linux at the very core. Everything else will be Microsoft. The system will likely not even turn on unless you have a MS Passport-type account with Microsoft.

By creating an operating system that will seamlessly tie in with Microsoft web applications Microsoft will hope that people will avoid Google.

It is a great strategy, but my second prediction is that Google will buy an Internet OS. Google will become an Online operating system that can run from any kind of computer anywhere in the world.

Within 10 years computers will be everywhere. There will be less demand for laptops because there will be small workstations in malls, airports, and cars. We will read our email and surf the web from our couches because our TVs will tap into our online operating system.

The shift from computer-based data to online-based data will cause another revolution and will be the most significant shift in technology ever.

And it will all be spurred by the mass exodus from Windows Vista.

Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
9
Feb 07

Web Appliances revisited

I wrote a number of months ago about the need for a new web appliance. A web appliance is a device that only accesses the Internet. Web TV (now MSN TV) is the only device that sort of falls in this category. What I envision (and wish I had the knowledge to build) is a flat screen monitor with built-in speakers and a cordless bluetooth connection to talk to a mouse, keyboard, and a printer. It would also have a card reader to interact with a digital camera and a wireless and/or Ethernet port for high speed Internet access.

It would not have a hard drive or anyway to load applications. All programs and document storage would be online ala Google Docs and Gmail. The vast majority of clients I work with do only three or four things: Internet, email, games, and maybe some word processing and/or digital photography. All of this (and more) can be currently accomplished online thus circumventing the need for anything but an Internet connection. Also, this type of user would benefit greatly by not needing to worry about backup and where their documents are when they need them. It would take away the need for the user to learn and understand file management (which is sorely missing for most computer users).

A great Internet appliance like this would not replace the personal computer because there are users who need and utilize fully the power of the computer. This device would be an inexpensive unit that would not need upgrading and would be tremendously easier to use than our current system of PC's and companies who build hardware and software for the PC's which require users to change the way they do things constantly. A well thought out and solidly built Internet appliance would be the telephone of the computer age…simple, effective, easy to use and no upgrades necessary because the innovation happens on the web not on our desktops.

Application Tips / Riding Shotgun with Rick — No Comments
26
May 06

Free alternatives to Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and more…

I was asked today to make a choice between Adobe Illustrator (high end art illustration program for creating custom graphics) and its competitor Corel Draw. Both are great programs and in the hands of a ‘digital artist’ they produce excellent results for logos, advertising layout, custom clip-art, etc. The problem is that you do need to be quite experienced in the programs to get the most out of them and they cost between $400-500.

Fortunately, there are many talented programs around the globe who work on free software that anyone can download use. This type of software is called "Open Source". A large movement (I guess we call it that) has been in place since almost the beginning of computers that wants to keep powerful software free and available to anyone. Much of the software is quite good and here is a link to a site that I found which offers free alternatives to Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Flash, Microsoft FrontPage and more.

One caution; free open source software can be buggy (potentially have or cause problems) and it comes with no formal support. Support is offered in the way of public forums on the Internet only. Many of these programs work quite well, but you need to have a pioneering attitude when trying this type of software solution. Some of the best software available today is a result of this type of software…Mozilla Firefox and Open Office come to mind first.