JordanDev

iPhone, Software Development, Music, Tech and other geeky stuff

Adblock for iPhone – A cleaner mobile web

Oct 27

Posted by jordandev in Tech, iPhone, jailbroken app reviews | 3 Comments

Up until now, I hadn’t really thought about ads on my iPhone. A lot of sites I use have a mobile or iPhone specific version that are usually very sparse on the ads if there are even any at all. But then sometimes you run across that annoying site that has a bunch of ads loaded on along with annoying flash ones that put a big can’t play icon over a good chunk of the page.

Well, no more. I recently decided to try out Adblock for the iPhone. It is available for jailbroken phones only. It costs a hefty $8, which I think is what put me off when I first saw it available months ago. Now that I’ve used it for awhile I can say that it was worth it to me. Screens of it in action on a couple sites below.

First, standard CNN:

Now, ad-blocked CNN:

Standard Mininova:

Ad-blocked Mininova:

The results are cleaner pages with less junk that you don’t want to see. It doesn’t always block 100% everything, but the filter subscription does update. It’s done a great job so far for what I expected it to do though. Another great thing about Adblock is that it improves page load time by not downloading the extra content at all. If it was reduced in price down to between $2-$4 I think it might sell more as it seems a tad high for functionality you can get for free on desktop browsers.

Anybody used it and have any thoughts? Comment below. You can also read more about it on the developers site at http://cocoamug.com/adblock/.

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GRiP – Improving a jailbroken iPhone’s Push/Email/SMS/etc Notification System

Oct 21

Posted by jordandev in iPhone, jailbroken app reviews | 8 Comments

With 3.0 the iPhone finally has a working Push notification system. The only problem with this is that is uses the standard notification popups that everything else uses. You get a Push notication, you get a popup. One popup. That’s it. Rather useless if you receive a ton of Push notifications. GRiP came along a few months ago and somehow I missed it, but read up on it a bit after I saw it mentioned somewhere and am very glad that I did. It’s basically like Growl on a Mac, hence the name, Growl for iPhone.

Growl

You can use GRiP for email, SMS, and Push notifications. An example of a push notification from Boxcar:

Or an email and a Boxcar notification:

You tap on the left side of the notification to close it. Or you tap it to expand it to show more information like so:

After it is expanded you can then tap it again to open the App that sent the notification:

GRiP is very customizable and is meant to be a platform for other developers to add their own use of these notifications. You can customize different priorities for different applications, change how long they stay on screen, whether they start expanded, and you can create or download themes for it. Very recommended if you find the stock notification system lacking and you want something quite a bit more powerful.

To get GRiP add this source to cydia: http://cydia.ipitg.net. Install the “GRiP – Growl for iPhoneOS” and “GRiP Really Impressive Pack”. More info available on the GRiP homepage at http://code.google.com/p/networkpx/wiki/GriP.

Any comments on your experience with GRiP?

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Matthew Good – Vancouver – Album Review

Oct 6

Posted by jordandev in Music | 7 Comments

matthew-good-vancouver

Track listing:

  1. “Last Parade” – 5:55
  2. “The Boy Who Could Explode” – 6:57
  3. “Great Whales Of The Sea” – 3:29
  4. “Us Remains Impossible” – 4:45
  5. “On Nights Like Tonight” – 4:22
  6. “Volcanoes” – 5:03
  7. “A Silent Army In The Trees” – 5:37
  8. “Fought To Fight It” – 4:23
  9. “The Vancouver National Anthem” – 6:51
  10. “Empty’s Theme Park” – 9:21

The new album Vancouver by Matthew Good was released October 6th.

Most everyone outside of Canada will be indifferent as the MGB never really hit it big in the US like a few other Canadian acts (Nickelback mostly, good taste not withstanding). But for Canadians interested in alternative rock you will either hate him or love him due to his opinions and politics. Most people don’t fall in between. I fall firmly into the love camp though.

In my eyes his solo career has been improving since the slight misstep (IMO) that was White Light Rock & Roll Review. I greatly enjoyed his first, Avalanche, but found his sophomore album to be slightly less satisfying. It was a bit different with just a bit too much of more standard rock songs, but there were still some great songs on it(Blue Skies Over Bad Lands). Hospital Music was a big improvement and went a lot more personal and inward and had loads of intelligent, well written, emotional lyrics dealing with the challenge of being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and the fallout with a significant other. The new album Vancouver continues the upward slope and I find it to be his best work yet.

Due to living around Vancouver for all of my life this album probably speaks to me more clearly than to somebody who didn’t. I don’t think it was quite meant to be, but the album feels like his parting gift to the city that was his home for 18 years. But it’s a bittersweet gift. The album comments on the discordant nature of the city and social issues that come with urban living. How one of the wealthiest urban neighborhoods in the country is less than 10 minutes away from one of the poorest. The track Vancouver National Anthem is where he expresses these views the clearest. It also features backing vocals by one of his buddies, Pete Yorn (can’t really separate them too well but they are there). Over the years Matt Good became disenchanted with the city so much so that he has finally moved out of it into the suburbs. A lot of this most likely has to due with the loss of the cities music scene, the change in night life, the Olympics, the Lower East Side, child poverty, and other things. The album is not so much attacking or criticizing Vancouver as reflecting on time spent there. As something a bit different, one of the best track’s on the album is “Silent Army in the Trees”. It deals with his experience of indoctrination of militarism when growing up, and uses the city as the backdrop to this. This album also has more subtle percussion than his last few which provides for a bit of a different feel and it seems to blend together better with the increased amount of symphonic elements. Overall, a great album.

9/10

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