Appigo and Toodledo: running into sync problems

Synchronization, which includes messages between distinct data models [1], is heck.

I really appreciate my iPhone's ToDo.app and my Firefox-rendered ToodleDo task list. Problem is, they've stopped playing nice together. From a post I wrote to the Appigo Todo Google Group:

I sync Appigo ToDo.app with Toodledo.

Recently, I'm having problems. They're nasty because I can tolerate a lot of bugs, but I can't tolerate sync bugs that cost me data.

The details of my current problems aren't all that important to this post. I'm seeing items on ToDo.app fail to move to Toodledo, and I'm seeing changes made to Toodledo be reversed on sync with ToDo.app

That's bad, but the real problem is -- who owns these problems?

They could be Appigo bugs, Toodledo bugs, or emergent bugs shared between the two. I wouldn't be surprised if the problems I'm seeing are all three!

I'm a paying customer for both Appigo and Toodledo -- but I don't want to file two bug reports.

My gut sense, and I have some experience in my real job to support this, that sync is very hard when one vendor controls both ends of the transaction. It's damned near impossible when two vendors are involved.

Real soon now we're going to have to get to a situation where one vendor is responsible for the end-to-end transaction -- or Appigo is going to have to get extremely close to either ToodleDo or RTM.

In the meantime, who will own these problems?

This is what could kill Appigo's superb iPhone apps. If Apple ever produces a task tool, even if it's much inferior to Appigo's product, they'll have the huge advantage of controlling the MobileMe, iCal and iPhone data models and the message model.

I'm hoping Appigo finds a solution, but it's a damned tough problem. This has broken many a company.

[1] See HL-7.

Lessons from the messages of hapdaniel

I've been trying to use Yahoo Pipes to create new streams from my Google Reader feeds.

I've run into a parsing problem (Pipes may not support parsing feeds that require cookies) and a limitation of Pipes' Boolean logic (All A not In B).

I both cases "hapdaniel" answered my questions, though my problems are not yet solved.

Which led me to look at all messages by hapdaniel.

I've looked at the Pipes documentation. This message stream is more useful.

There's a lesson here, that I'm slowly learning. Whenever you receive a useful response on a message board, you ought to mine all related messages. Most forums allow one to see all messages of a member, almost all allow one to search for a string. These are valuable information streams.

So who is hapdaniel? A hobbyist with deep technical knowledge? A Pipes developer moonlighting in the forums? A covert tech support person? I think we see all 3 in these settings.

In some cases, it might be worth adding these information streams to a Google Custom Search engine.

iPhone app bypasses phone trees

via a Jacob Reider share:

Direct Line Saves iPhone Users From Automated Call Hell

... Add this to your list of must have iPhone applications. Direct Line (iTunes link) is a service that helps you automatically navigate phone trees to get right to an operator (exactly what companies don’t want you to do).

Install the application, browse of search the included companies, and select the one you want. Direct Line then calls the number and preselects the appropriate choices to get you to an actual person...

Costs $1. I'll try it. Jacob also links to Fonolo, a web site that does even more.

I don't mind smart, fast, well structured phone trees. It's just that they're quite rare...

Filtering my Google Reader Share with Yahoo Pipes

[Update: I thought this was working, but it turned out I was using the wrong feed. When I substituted my true Shared Item feeds Yahoo Pipes was unable to parse it. I'll see if i can fix things up, but I'll leave the post as an example of what I'd like to do with Pipes.]

I love my Google Reader shares, as can be seen on our family news page. I particularly appreciate being able to "star" and "share" items using Google Reader Mobile.

 Of course there's always room for improvement. Google lets me tag blogs and share by tag ("folder"), but I can't sum blogs and I can't filter, for example, all my shared items save those that belong to the tag "politics".

The politics is the problem. I am, shall we say, not enthused with the GOP. Now it is true that all my friends feel pretty much the same way, but that is not true of my colleagues. If I give them my Google shared items feed address they'll find it a mixed blessing.

 That's where Yahoo Pipes come in. Yahoo Pipes can be used to filter out, say, iPhone posts. Pipe are cool, even Googlers like 'em. I was hoping I could create a Pipe of form [All A not in B] where A is my Google Reader shared item feed and B is my Google Reader politics feed, but I don't think that's supported. On other hand I can filter out posts containing Cheney, Bush, McCain, Palin and even Obama.

That's not optimal of course. It will eliminate many news stories, and some horticulture. I'll see what else I can do, but in the meantime I'll test pipes.yahoo.com/jfaughnan/lesspolitics. I've added it to my Google Reader shares, so I suppose I can now create recursive shares ..


Update 2/2/09: I find a fix from a different angle.

Apple's ads lie. Who knew?

I don't watch TV, so I never saw Apple's iPhone ads until I watched this hilarious video comparing real world performance to Apple's iPhone ads

iPhone 3G Owners Are Using Less Internet Than AT&T Expected: Blame Crappy Service (AAPL, T)

... In the meantime, we remind you of this video, which accurately shows the difference between Apple's pretend 3G iPhone experience and the real thing."

The ads are ridiculous -- a quad core desktop with a GB/sec fiber connection doesn't surf that quickly -- the servers aren't that responsive.

I enjoy using my 3G iPhone to surf the web, but it ain't nothin' like the commercials. Just as well I never saw them.

So are there are any legal limits to this sort of thing?

Web site for swap of defective 3G iPhone USB power supply

If your tiny 3G iPhone USB power supply doesn't have a green dot, you need to go to this web site to order a replacement: Apple - Support - Apple Ultracompact USB Power Adapter Exchange Program.

It takes just a minute, you need to know your Apple store account and you need your phone to look up the serial number.

Apple will send a replacement - same size and form, but with a green dot. We're supposed to return the defective unit, rather than, say, keep it and have two.

Tough call, but honesty will doubtless force me to return mine in the prepaid mailer.

App store innards - handy knowledge for basic maintenance

Excellent review, includes a few that are new to me. Read the entire article for the full story, I'll be checking for leftover app versions in my iTunes app folder.

iPhone Atlas - Ted Landau - Five “under-the-hood” things you should know about App Store apps

1. Where are iPhone apps actually stored on a Mac ...

2. I opened the Mobile Applications folder. All the files there end in .ipa. What’s with that?

Consider ipa an abbreviation for “iPhone application.” ... use the shareware program Pacifist. Specifically:

1. Make a copy of the app that you want to check (say Koi Pond.ipa).
2. Change the name of the copied file to Koi Pond.ipa.pkg.
3. Click “Use .pkg” when the dialog appears asking what you want to do.
4. Open Koi Pond.ipa.pkg in Pacifist.

...
1. Via Pacifist, navigate to Payload > KoiPond.app >Info.plist. Extract this file.
2. Open the file using Property List Editor (or any other utility you have for opening .plist files).

From here, you can confirm the version number (CFBundleVersion) of the app. This should be the same number you’ll find in the Version item of the Summary tab, if you select Get Info for an app in iTunes.

Also in the .plist file, note the line that reads UIStatusBarHidden Boolean Yes...

3. There are several copies of some apps in the Mobile Applications folder (with names like Koi Pond.ipa, Koi Pond 1.ipa, Koi Pond 2.ipa etc.) What gives with that?

First the good news: If you’ve updated to iTunes 8, this should no longer happen.

Prior to iTunes 8, these duplicates accumulated each time you updated to a newer version of an app (or even redownloaded the same version). All downloads were retained, even though only the latest copy was used.

... If you still have duplicates hanging around, drag them to the Trash and delete them. You only need to retain the copy with the most recent modification date. If there is any doubt as to which copy to keep, go to Applications in iTunes and select Show in Finder from any app’s contextual menu. This will take you to the Mobile Applications folder with the active copy highlighted. That’s the one you want to keep.

Although they are usually harmless, these duplicates can occasionally cause problems...

4. Can I run apps on my iPhone that other people have purchased?

No and Yes. The system for apps works the same way as for music and video purchased from the iTunes Store. By default, App Store apps can only be run on iPhones and iPod touches synced to the computer used to purchase the software. However, a user can authorize up to 5 computers to have access to their iTunes Store purchases. Thus, to use an app purchased by a friend...