Rense Nieuwenhuis » iphone

WorldBank on iPhone: Great initiative, but not quite there …

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:00:17 +0000

Last Tuesday, I wrote about the Open Data initiative of the World Bank, and mentioned the iPhone App that provides access to a great amount data. Isn’t it lovely to be able to access information on a large number of indicators, covering many countries and years? Always wondered how the fertility rates in Samoa developed over time, or are you finding yourself discussing country-differences in the government dept as a percentage of GDP? Now you can have the information in your pocket, and access it everywhere, every time. For free.

I have been playing with this app, and found it very easy to use. First, you have to select one of the many available indicators, one or several countries, and the time-span you wish to plot. The first picture below shows a (very small) part of the list of indicators. Unfortunately, on my iPhone I was only able to access the indicators starting with A to C. I suppose the others will be added soon.

The second image shows the screen in which the plot is set up: an indicator is selected, and some countries are added to the list. After saving these settings, a screen pops up with more plots you defined (third image). It is very nice to be able to save some of the data you want to be able to access quickly. Selecting one of these shows the graphic as line-plots (fourth image). You can even save the image of the graph to your photo-library, or send the image or it’s data to an e-mail address. Unfortunately, on my iPhone, the graph doesn’t show properly: the lines do not align to the x-axis. In addition: I do not think these particular lines representing fertility rates are all that accurate.

The idea of a WorldBank DataFinder app for the iPhone is very nice. I think the app is well designed: it is easy to set up a graphic, and you can store several graphics for easy reference later on. In its current version, some serious bugs are present, but these will be resolved easily, I reckon. In the end, this is going to be a great app, but some bugs need to be ironed out first.

I reviewed version 1.1 of the World Bank DataFinder app, on my iPhone 3g (OS version 3.1.3).

World Bank Open Data Initiative

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:00:41 +0000

Following upon my declaration of the Decade of Data, I think it is very impressive that the World Bank decided to share its data. As part of their ‘open data initiative’, data from their large number of databases is made available through the internet. Together, these databases encompass over 2,000 indicators of countries all over the world, many of them covering a time-series of 50 years. Topics include:

If the mission of the World Bank is to “fight poverty with passion and professionalism for lasting results and to help people help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and private sectors”, I believe this initiative can but help. More data, more dissemination, and more people using the data will all contribute to more knowledge.

The website allows for making graphics, maps and tables using the data. It is also possible to download the data: be sure to do so, for it immediately gives access to the complete time-series. Moreover, the World Bank created an interface allowing other applications to access the data directly. One cool application using this is already created by the people of the World Bank themselves, for an iPhone application is available. Imagine having all this data in your pocket!

Thanks to

Reading .PDF articles on iPhone

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:00:39 +0000

I promised to write some on the use of Apple’s iPhone in an academic setting. Now, I have found one that allows you to read .PDF articles when on the road, provided that they are uploaded to MobileMe. It’s a free application, and it will serve many reading-needs untill existing software such as BibDesk or Papers will incorporate iPhone utilities, which of course would be really nice. For now, we will have to rely on MobileFiles.

MobileFiles is freely available from the App store and coonects to your MobileMe account easily. Just enter your username and password, and that’s it. The interface is clean and initially shows your online iDisk, as well as files that are stored locally on your iPhone. Using a structure similar to the Finder, it is easy to find your files. Once found, you can store them on your iPhone, or open them directly, provided that the iPhone can read them. And yes, the iPhone can rezd .PDF files.

I use BibDesk to automatically store my articles, and I previously explained how to sync those with MobileMe. So, when I go the the folder in which I store my articles, I can easily read them, wherever I am. Sure, heavy reading on such a small screen is not very comfortable, but it does well when a quick reference is what you need. All the usual benefits of the iPhone interface are available: you can pinch to zoom in or out, when you rotate the device the article’s orientation also changes, and you can rotate single pages easily, again with the multitouch interface. Scrolling large articles can be a bit slow, especially concerning older articles which are basically scanned versions of the paper edition. The only thing missing is the ability to take notes. For that, I guess we’ll have to wait for the iPhone version of Skim.

WordPress blogging on iPhone made easy

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:11:57 +0000

Recently I wrote about buying an iPhone and introduced to be writing about iPhone applications suitable for the academic life. Well, here it is: I found the WordPress application for iPhone highly suitable for mobile and academic blogging (on WordPress).

Devesigned by ‘automattic‘, the same people who wrote the WordPress code (“code is poetry”), released their WordPress application for iPhoneÂ today. I downloaded it and found myself writing this post within a minute. Really, that’s how well it works! The app has been redesigned and in nothing it resembles the WordPress admin screen.

The interface allows thevuser to sign up for several blogs. I only had to fill in the URL, my user name, and password. When logged in to one of my blogs, thirty of my recent posts are shown and can be easily read and edited. Using a single button, a new post is created, including a title field, categories, and tags. All the categories created on my blog were shown on my iPhone, but it is also possible to add more categories on the run. Drafts are stored locally, so that you can write even when not connected to the internet.

Not all that is possible from the WordPress admin screen, can be done using the iPhone app. For starters, you can’t do anything but write a blog post, but I feel that in that limitation the strength of this app lies. Some other limitations are due to the fact that we’re writing from an iPhone: for instance I don’t see myself writing posts with a thousands of words length due to the relatively small keyboard.

Some other things might perhaps be added to future versions of this app, however. For instance, it is at present not possible to add a link to another page or blog on the web. Also, you can’t manually change the permalink of the post, nor can abstracts be added to the posts.

All in all I find this app strongly suited for writing a quick post on your Worspress blog. No long and detailed academic posts can be expected to be written using this app, but I do believe that it is very well able to result in nice concise contributions. Especially in a dynamic environment where you don’t want to be lugging around too much equipment, for instance on a conference, I see how this WordPress app can be put to great use.

Soon I will be attending the useR! 2008 conference in Dortmund. I already planned to do some conference live-blogging, so now I have found myself the tool to do so.

First post written on my iphone

Rense Nieuwenhuis — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:16:10 +0000

This is the first post that I wrote on my new and shiny iPhone. It does not seem fit for long epistels, but I think I can use it for some short messages to keep people up to date. It is interesting to find myself logging in to the admin page of my blog and to immediately type away! Well, almost immediately that is, for the main text field did not work. Switching to the HTML view solved the problem however.

It is amazing to see how well the on-screen keyboard manages to correct for the typing errors I make. Once I get used to this and learn to trust upon of, the typing speed will not be all that bad.

Being mainly an academic blog I won’t be writing much on general experiences with the iPhone, but do expect some reviews of iPhone applications suoted for the academic life.