Screenshot Journal

This new app automatically imports screenshots from your camera roll. It also lets you zoom in and inspect individual pixels. Extremely useful for UI designers and IOS developers. It will not delete the screenshots from the camera roll for you. This would have been nice, I hate having my amateur iPhone photos cluttered with screenshots. They let me know that editing the camera roll is not allowed by apps. But the app is worth the $1.99 because of how fast and accurately it imports screenshots, even if I have to manually delete them after.

via Loren Britcher

Free Custom Domain Names

Squarespace Blog on offering free custom domain names with all annual and bi-annual subscriptions.

Our new Custom Domains interface makes domain selection and mapping a breeze. Never change a CNAME or A Record within a third-party registrar again. Just choose the domain you want, and we'll take care of the rest.

Setting up a custom domain name is probably the most difficult thing for your average user, and probably is a culprit of many customer service questions when initially setting up a site with Squarespace. With so many domain registers (most with shitty websites) it's hard to provide a tutorial for every one, never mind a set of easy strait forward instructions. They still need to do that, but now they make it much easier if you just get a domain through them.

This is extremely smart of Squarespace. It makes sense to please their customers and takes a load off of customer support. They will also set up custom domain emails with Google for you, what more could you ask for?

Hypercritical #64

This weeks Hypercritical Podcast on the 5by5 Network, John Siracusa talks about the potential screen sizes for the next iPhone. The most interesting thing he says is he predicted in the past that Apple displays would have less borders around them, and goes on to say that this is a logical prediction that is almost a given. This is exactly what I'm trying to get with future iPhones having less bezel and more screen. He also believes that the iPhone screen will get bigger one way or another to accomplish this.

I highly recommend listening to the whole episode, the talk about the historical and ongoing dilution of the concept of a "gamer" really resonates with me. I also particularly like the talk about how some people just haven't developed or can't develop the skills to enjoy many non-casual games. I know I have plenty of memories of trying to teach someone how to play a game that I love. But they end up getting frustrated and never understanding what makes it such a good game because they just can't wrap their head around basic controls of movement within the games world.

The 4-Inch iPhone Aftermath - Going Gold

A few weeks ago I called into the Vergcast and talked about how I thought it was likely that Apple would change the aspect ratio of the iPhone and give it a taller screen in order to reach 4 inches. It would result in easier app compatibility and keep the same screen DPI. John Gruber on Daring Fireball then hints that I may know more then I let on. I hope most people realize that this is actually his way of slyly saying he knows more, that or he likes the idea so much he thinks it came directly from Apple; either way I'm humbled by either scenario.

I came up with this "theory" from thinking, using logic, and simply what I want from a new iPhone, mixed with what I thought Apple would want from a new iPhone.

And to name a few.

• I don't want the iPhone footprint to get bigger.
• Apple will want all apps to still work on day one, and scaling pixels to a different resolution is not the answer.
• Apple is going to make a better looking, better designed iPhone.
• If there is an easy way for a lot of apps to adjust to a new screen size, Apple would favor this over all apps being redesigned.

I would also like to note this theory was born from reasons my favorite writers said a 4" screen wouldn't work. I took those very logical opinions, and made a 4" screen that would give them a hard time to find flaws with. And many of them ended up loving the idea.

The biggest argument against my theory has to do with the aspect ratio. Hey I don't love a 16:9 or 9:5 aspect ratio either, but when trying to explain how a 4 inch iPhone could easily work, it's better to keep it simple and to the point. When trying to prove that point, the less extra ideas thrown in that don't help the point, the more likely the original point will be understood. The main idea is keeping the 640 horizontal pixels. Keeping the PPI the same was just to prove that it could work like that, without sacrificing the pixel density at all.

So people have had time to express their ideas and thoughts on this. A lot of people saying they love the idea, a lot thinking the iPhone will need to get taller for some reason, and a lot of people hating on the aspect ratio. But now it's my turn to say what I would want in an ideal iPhone.

I think the iPhone 4S is the perfect size, I don't think the screen size is perfect, I don't think the aspect ratio is perfect. The reason for this is as the iPhone gets better designs over the years, it will be more and more screen with less and less borders or bezels. The iPad has a functional reason for the bezel, but besides the current home button, the iPhone doesn't need such a large bezel, if any in the future. It isn't hard to imagine a futuristic iPhone of maybe six years from now. I think it's crazy that anyone would think that the iPhone would look identical from the front and 30% of the front still is a bezel. The only thing I give credit design wise to some android phones is how much some of them just look like a screen in your hand, and it's impressive looking.

From this I say the screen needs to get larger, because I don't want a short stubby iPhone. But by the same thinking I don't want a bigger stubby iPhone either. The 3:2 aspect ratio as a phone size alone doesn't seem right to me. I've seen many mock-ups and the 3:2 aspect ratio iPhone doesn't look right at 4" or 3.5". Therefor I think the screen needs to get larger and the aspect ratio needs to get taller in order to fill out the meticulously sized iPhone.

3:2 stubby edge to edge screen iPhone

So keeping the 640 pixel width and keeping pixel density above 300. This is the screen I would like, fits on the current iPhone, and looks good if in the future the bezel becomes non existent. I present to you, the golden ratio. The screen width will go from 1.94" to 2.1" (iPhone 4S device width is 2.31") it would be 640 x 1036 resolution which is an aspect ratio of 1.618:1 (the golden ratio) with a DPI of 305.

The exact numbers Apple will use? I don't know, but I think the screen will change with the next iPhone.

Below is an image from Dan Provost showing different screen ratios and sizes on iPhones, edited to add my own iPhone mock-up.
I made sure everything would work with my math above, however I have poor image editing skills so the image may not match perfectly to my math, but it shows the basics.