I’m a person who’s default browser changes almost as often as my clothing. But there is always one dominant browser that I use more than any other. For a long time, it’s been Firefox. Internet Explorer, generally big and bulky, too hard to customize and too stiff, lost me a long time ago. I have Safari installed too, but it’s just too far-out for me. I only use it to test websites I’m building.

But then there’s Chrome.

The first time I switched to Chrome was when Chrome was brand new. It was exciting, Google’s foray into web browsers, and loving Gmail and Google Calendar, and Google search, I had to try Chrome. It was simple and clean. Too simple and clean. That lasted a day or so.

The second and third switches, I quickly found out that I could not use one of my indispensible programs in Chrome, Roboform. I rely on Roboform, used it for years now, and can’t live without it. Or at least I can’t work effectively without it. Chrome had an extension which was, OK, but it really didn’t work like the Roboform toolbar in Firefox and Internet Explorer. So without a good way to acccess my passwords, I was back to Firefox. Thanks to add-ons like Web Developer Toolbar, I used Firefox 99% of the time I opened a browser.

Lately though, Firefox has been slow, and every new version reminds me of personas. Please don’t remind me of personas. They are pretty much all ugly and messy. Who needs that? Every time I look at them I can’t believe they are still around. And then, today, I went into Roboform looking for a couple passcards I saved just last week, and they are gone. I don’t know why, I do sync with the Online Roboform, and maybe somehting went wrong, but I was anoyed to lose some passwords. Out to Google I go, looking for answers, and discovered there is a new password manager called LastPass. I downloaded it and also found it works with Chrome, so back to Chrome I go.

Chrome. You click the icon and BANG, it’s up. Websites load faster, seems a lot faster. Makes me wonder what other browsers actually do when you click a link.

Plus, extensions are great and they add all the ‘add-ons’ I like about Firefox. And with LastPass integration, I’m sold.

So my question is why did Roboform take so long to get integrated well with Chrome? I asked and Roboform told me on Twitter that it was a tololbar issue, I guess because Chrome does not have extra toolbars, and since Roboform built their browser versions on the need for toolbars (not blaming them, they had to do it somehow), Chrome came slow. However, I did discover that there is a toolbar that sticks to the bottom of Chrome for Roboform, and so far it’s working well for me. However I’m testing LastPass too and we’ll see who wins. So far, I’m sorry to say (because I’m a LONG TIME Roboform fan, user, buyer, and fanboy) LastPass is winning.

Without having tested for very long, the first thing is that it works well, as it should, putting it even with Roboform. However where it stands a little higher for me, is the iPhone app. LastPass works FAST, I can’t believe how quickly I can login to my sites using it on my iPhone, and the integrated browser allows landscape! Silly to be so excited about that? I wish I didn’t have to be, but too many apps either don’t do landscape, or do it very badly. (Roboform used to fall under the latter, I just tried and found it was working fine. It used to stick and get messed up. Now that I know it works too, I give the LastPass app a 9 and Roboform an 8. Why? LastPass requires less clicks to get there.)

Love to hear your opinions on Firefox vs Chrome, as well as Roboform vs LastPass, if you have any of them!

I still have the iPhone 3GS, but maybe next year will upgrade. Usually it’s a matter of checking other options and coming back to the fact that nothing can really rival the iPhone … yet. But I was talking to my little brother yesterday who just ordered the droid x and he assures me that it’s a game changer. I’m excited to hear it, but is it really a game changer?

iPhone traditionally beats every other phone in most categories, the most important of which is:

1. User satisfaction
2. User plan on purchasing the same phone in the future

In both cases, iPhone always rates the highest. It’s kind of annoying actually, since being on top and staying there isn’t necessarily good for competition. Having phones truly competing, instead of just other phones attempting, in vain, to rival the iPhone, would be very good for the market. It would push Apple to go beyond their comfort zone.

Part of the problem, if that’s what you can call it, is that iPhone has an app store that is vast and great. A big reason for this is of course, they started it first. But another biggie is that iOS is standardized and runs on one piece of hardware, although with a few different versions. But droid runs on many different devices, for example, and has different versions to support varied hardware. This makes it harder for a developer. Do you have to develop different versions of an app for different hardware? In some cases, probably.

One thing I heard about the droid x is that it’s BIG. Apparently larger hands enjoy it, generally. And it bulges up near the camera. When my iPhone is in my pocket, I don’t even notice it. I like that. It’s travels well. A larger bulkier phone might be hot in the pocket, or at least cause annoyance. My little brother being 6 foot 4 and just big, maybe he’ll find it a non-issue.

I’m looking forward to hearing what people have to say about this, especially if you own a droid x, so please comment, or reply on twitter. Thanks!

Taking advantage of a security flaw in iOS 4.01, Jailbreakme.com is a website you can visit with your iPhone and very quickly and easily jailbreak your phone.

I did it, it took around 2-3 minutes in total, and I now have Cydia on my desktop.

Coffee is a topic we like to discuss on this blog, from time to time. So when I saw this icon set I had to share it with you! It’s a free download, but if you are a designer, make sure to take advantage of the membership. It’s a really really good deal. For $19/ month, you get a bunch of really amazing icons, with full rights.

Anyway, go check out this icon set, download it for free, and take a look at the membership too if you often need good high quality icons!

These are really cool! Social media icons all themed on a coffee cup:

Spill a little coffee on a brown paper bag and you get this:

Nice (but a little blurry) ‘coffee stain’ social media icons:

Nice looking cup of coffee with some other icons:

Another coffee stain:

An icon set in coffee brown:

Coffee cup RSS icon from Smashing along with a few others:

Coffee cup on a folder (hey how about newspaper instead?):

There are loads of combinations of these breakfast icons everywhere but they are pretty nice:

Some more nice breakfast icons:

Nice icon set, including a cup of java sitting on a coffee stain:

Big cup of coffee:

A bunch of 31 coffee icons:

Jailbreaking the iPhone used to be a hairy and scary thing to do … if you believe all the horror stories about prior versions of the jailbreak programs causing serious problems with your phone.

But today, it’s pretty simple and quick, and there are some really cool benefits and very little downside.

In case you are in a hurry, I’ll show you how first, and then tell you why.

How To Jailbreak iPhone 3.0

I had 3.12 on an iPhone 3G, so this is the result I got from that setup.

First you download the program, use Blackra1n since it’s so easy and quick. Get it here.

Once you have the program on your computer, you simply plugin the iPhone and hit a button that shows up that says “Make It Rain”. About 3 minutes later, you have a jailbroken iPhone with a few different app stores available, including the most popular, called Cydia.

Why I Jailbroke My iPhone 3.0? Benefits!

Ok, first of all, it’s not everything to jailbreak your iPhone.

Yes there are some cool additions to what you can do on your iPhone, and some customization that makes it a good deal. But is it going to make you a lot more productive? I’m not sure I can really say that. Will it make your iPhone experience a little more fun? Definitely on that one …

The first thing when I jailbroke my iPhone is I had a few new apps showing up. One was blackra1n, and there was also Cydia, and Winterboard. Winterboard is used to activate and deactivate a lot of themes and tweaks. And it runs on something called Springboard. Springboard crashes occasionally and you have to reboot. But I’ve had other apps that crashed me before, so it does not seem like a big deal to me.

Going into Cydia, there are loads of apps to browse. The immediate difference is that it’s not as pretty as the Apple App store on the phone. The icons don’t show you anything about the program, and you have to wait for it to load before getting a screenshot or two. Most Apple app store apps have several screenshots, but the Cydia ones usually have only one screenshot. This might not seem like a big deal, but if you like to see how the theme or tweak is going to look first, it’s a bit annoying.

However, I’ve found a few Cydia apps that are total deal makers for me …

One is qTweeter. If you use twitter or Facebook, this is a really awesome app. It costs $5, but it’s a totally cool way to update both twitter and facebook at the same time. You get 15 free status updates before you have to pay for the app. So plenty of time to test it out before you have to pay. Very nice touch. I never would buy an app for $5 without being able to try it first unless I was really confident. The app uses twitpic and twitvid to automatically generate short links and show your pic or video in your status update. This rocks … Another cool thing about qTweeter is that you can update your status, from anywhere. Just touch the status bar on the top of the screen and qTweeter drops a window down, over any app or the homescreen. This is something that is unheard of on an iPhone that isn’t jailbroken. You just can’t do stuff like that.

Another app that is totally cool is Cycorder. If you already have an iPhone 3GS, you don’t need this app. But I have a 3G. So no video recorder preloaded. Cycorder turns your 3G into a video recorded, just like a 3GS. And the really cool thing is that qTweeter can automatically generate a video and load it on twitvid. WAY cool. So these two programs together make it easy to update the Twitter status.

There are other apps that some friends of mine keep saying I have to try, like a scrabble-type of game that you can play online. But I have yet to try it.

Themes are maybe the #1 reason to jailbreak your iPhone. If making your phone look and feel unique, then jailbreak and get your theme. There are hundreds to choose from and many of them come in parts, so you can use the battery from one theme and the background from another, for example. During my first week I changed the theme nonstop. Now I have the one I like. Screenshot coming soon … my wife has my phone today and she’s out and about …

Then, there’s the Backgrounder. From any app just hold the home button for about 2 seconds and the app minimizes into the background. That way, if you want to start it up again, no waiting for the splash screen and load. It’s right there for a quick load. It’s good if you are working on something and need to switch between apps a lot. But since it does not persist after you turn your iPhone off and back on again, I don’t use it too much.

The Big Warranty Question

A lot of people are afraid of voiding their warranty on the iPhone. But if you just restore the phone from iTunes, it wipes out the programs. That’s right, a restore makes the iPhone new again, no sign of jailbreak. So the warranty is really a non-issue in my opinion. But make your own decision on that one …

Syncing With iTunes After A Jailbreak

After a jailbreak, I was curious to see how a sync would work: just like it does before the jailbreak.

I had some apps purchase on my iTunes, and some purchased on the phone. And everything synced fine.

I think some older versions of jailbreak programs used to mess around with your ability to sync, but not Blackra1n.

That’s just about it for me. If you have any questions or comments I’d love to hear it!

Ah coffee, the thing we can’t do without in the morning, and that most of us would not dare do at night. It helps us think, we say, and makes us shake. It gives us headaches when we drink too much and headaches when we don’t have enough.

Here I’ve compiled a bunch of humorous, creative, or beautiful coffee graphics. I hope you enjoy them!

It’s happening …

Whenever I hear about something late and breaking I still sometimes try googling it. Oops …

Better start with twitter. Maybe google will have a few stories tomorrow. But for now, Twitter has the latest news.

I even admit that I’ve followed games by using Twitter searches. Someone is always tweeting the score. So I know how the celtics are doing …

A lot of my friends and colleagues are holding out saying Twitter is a passing fad. Ok, you go ahead and wait.

I’m going to see what’s going on right now.

Adobe Fireworks (free trial of it is available here) is my tool of choice for creating my web design drafts, graphics for sites, and anything else that requires me to manipulate or create graphics.

Last week I wanted to create a new theme for my Twitter feed, that would be really cool. Since it’s getting close to Christmas, and there is snow and cold, I thought a nice winterland theme would be nice, and appropriate.

So how I started was to begin with a new file, and I chose 1500px wide to make sure I would go across most major monitors. Only the hugest screens will have my image starting over to the right. Next, I laid out the spacing for the two bars at the right and left of the twitter stream. This is a judgement call. I chose to space them as if it was going to be on a 1280×1024 screen size. This is the majority of windows, so it will still miss in 800×600 and 1440×900 and other resolutions. Oh well, since Twitter does not allow anything dynamic or flexible, it will have to do.

Next step, deciding on color scheme and starting to create the elements. Since it’s a wonderland scheme, blues and greens work well. So I picked a few nice colors. For the trees, I went with a few different colors of green with a little brownish tint to make it look more real.

To create the trees, I made 3 triangles on top of each other for each pine tree. For the trees that were closer to the front, I also did a ‘combine paths’ and chose ‘union’ with an oval at the bottom of the triangles, to make it look rounded. I used the ‘chiffon’ texture at 50% which looked a lot like pine branches, and I did a gradient with a darker band in the middle, to give the tree some perspective.

The closer trees, I did a ‘Commands’, ‘creative’ and ‘add shadow’ with a blue color, and then I overlaid a gradient that faded from bluish to transparent over the trees in the back, to make them look more distant.

I also made an oval with a feathered edge, to look like a hill in front, on which the closer trees are standing.

Once I saved the completed image, I used PNG Gauntlet to compress it so that Twitter would allow me to use it for my background, and I loaded it.

It took me a few hours to complete it, and I think it turned out pretty well, do you agree?

There’s a funny video making the rounds that is about Twitter. There are two main characters, a young guy and another guy in his 30′s. The younger guy isn’t on Twitter and the other takes him and shows him the Twitter world (“into the Twittersphere!!”). They end up getting eaten by the fail whale and the older character ends up lying on the floor dying and trying to tweet about it. OK somewhat macabre, but funny nonetheless.

In one exchange the younger guy asks “Why is everyone such an exhibitionist all of the sudden?”.

It’s an interesting question and I think it captures something of Twitter’s appeal as well as the reason for it’s success.

We are living in a media age, and more than perhaps ever before people are looking for entertainment in almost everything. We don’t just read news, we get it from the sources that are funny, diverse, and appealing. And the more entertaining it is, the more credible. Just look at Jon Stewart. Even Jim Cramer. It’s all about entertainment.

So in this media age, we are fans of others. Fans in a loose way maybe, but as bloggers and website owners and social media users the more entertaining we can be the more people follow us. They become our fans.

Back to exhibitionism. Why should we be showing off what we are doing this morning or afternoon? Who should care if I’m a little tired or ate a hamburger for lunch? Really nobody should. But what it I can make my Twitter stream entertainment … and say those things or other things like them, in an entertaining way. Don’t we have a bit of a desire for others to follow us? To want to be around us? Making our Twitter updates interesting and entertaining satisfies our desire to gather fans. And in this age of entertainment and media, it’s all about fans.

So is exhibitionism bad? Not really. I suppose it can have it’s excess. But it satisfies our desire to be entertaining and gives others another place to be a fan. Sounds like meeting a need in society …