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Zendesk is a help desk ticketing system for both small and large businesses. Their developers recently updated the Zendesk iPhone app (free) with iOS 4 compatibility. Incredibly, the company boasts 50,000 downloads of their app within 4 months.

That’s a lot of help tickets.

Using the iOS app will be familiar to anyone whose used Zendesk. Just fire it up for real-time access to tickets in the system. You can create and edit tickets, leave comments and more while out in the field addressing those very issues. You can easily identify a ticket via Twitter (what they call a “Twicket”) and tweet back to the customer publicly or via direct message. That’s a great idea since many users — happy and not — take to Twitter with their praises and gripes.

Back in the day, I worked for a medium-sized company (who shall remain nameless) that tested and eventually rolled out Zendesk. This was before the iPhone app was available, of course, but both the IT Department and the users loved the service. I can see how putting it in your pocket would make the experience even better.

Congratulations to Zendesk on the 50,000 mark. t

TUAWZendesk for iPhone hits 50K downloads in 4 months originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve been on a Pomodoro kick lately here in the TUAW offices. While Steve was ultimately disappointed with The Amazing Mechanical Pomodoro for iPhone and iPod touch, I’ve quite enjoyed using Pomodoro Desktop for the Mac. It’s effective, unobtrusive and, once configured properly, a useful tool for fans of the Pomodoro technique of productivity.

Once installed, Pomodoro Desktop becomes a menu bar item. You’ll see a timer set for 25 minutes, with is the length of one “pomodoro,” or block of time during which you’re meant to work steadily. Click the timer and you’ll see several options, including “Start pomodoro.” A voice counts you down (“On your mark, get set, go”) and you’re off. From there, the timer counts down until the 25 minutes is gone and you’ve earned a 5-minute break.

That’s very nice, but I had to make a few adjustments. Select “Preferences” to open the preferences pane. First, Pomodoro Desktop plays a ticking sound as you work. I found it to be extremely annoying, so I de-selected the box to disable it. Next, I disabled the voice that gets you started. To do this, go to the Speech tab and de-select that option. While there are many voices to choose from, some less Robbie-The-Robot than others, I had to kill that feature entirely.

Other options include Growl integration which is nice, Twitter integration which is odd (I doubt my friends care about what project i’m working on, but co-workers probably would), full support for AppleScripting and customizable keyboard shortcuts.

Another nice feature lets you review all of the “pomodoros” (or work cycles) that you’ve completed in a day or even since you started using the app. For the whopping price of free (donations encouraged), you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better implementation of the Pomodoro Technique for that Mac than Pomodoro Desktop. It does what it should while staying out of the way. Check it out.

TUAWPomodoro Desktop puts a tomato in your menubar originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As I write this, I have been an iPhone 4 owner for ten days. I’ve replaced one iPhone 4 so far, and I’m about to send the replacement back, too. You know why? Because both of the iPhone 4 units I’ve owned have had the same design flaw. No, not that one. No, not that one, either.

A few days after being savvy/lucky enough to score an iPhone 4 during New Zealand’s notoriously bungled launch, I noticed a small gap between the rear glass and the stainless steel antenna band. At the iPhone 4’s top, near the rear-facing camera, the top couple millimeters of the unit had a gap between the antenna bezel and the rear casing that was large enough to admit all sorts of dust and pocket crud into the iPhone 4’s internals. I also noticed an irritating, rhythmic buzzing noise coming from the vicinity of the noise-cancelling mic any time I was on a phone call and had the handset against my ear.

I took the unit in to get it replaced, as most people would do. And so began my excellent, fun-time, rage-inducing iPhone 4 adventure. Click “Read More” to learn about the bafflingly stupid state of affairs that takes place when you need to exchange an iPhone in a country that has no official Apple Stores.

TUAWMy excellent, fun-time, rage-inducing iPhone 4 adventure originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve spotlighted a few different Xbox Live browsers here on the site before, so here’s a little console balance. PSN Go is an app designed to let you browse and control your PlayStation Network account (the account that you set up when you’ve got a PS3 connected to the Internet). It’s unofficial (not created by Sony) and made by a third party, but you can log in with a PSN name and password and browse through your friend lists, gamer profile, trophy lists, and other PSN information.

Unfortunately, unlike most of the other “account browser” apps that we’ve seen, this one is priced a little higher than free — it’s US $1.99. While that’s still not a lot, it is quite a bit to pay for just the opportunity to browse friends’ lists when away from your console. Still, the app has a full in-app game database, and it’s pretty well polished and runs great. Plus, it’s getting updated; it’s all set for the iPhone 4’s Retina Display, and it’s seen a few UI improvements and bug fixes already. If you find yourself browsing your PSN account quite a bit (especially when not at home), it’s probably worth the couple bucks.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: PSN Go originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I’m lying alone with my head on the Mac
Thinking of Apple ’til it hurts
The store is down, so what can we do?
Tormented and waiting,

We’re all out of Store, we’re so lost without it,
We’ll be right, believing for so long…
We’re all out of Store, what are we with out it?
It won’t be too late, when the Store finally comes back

Oh, what are you stocking?
What are you stocking
Oh, what are you stocking?
What are you stocking

— Apologies to Apple Supply, er, that is Air Supply

Let us know your predictions in the comments. Also, don’t forget to ping us when the store goes back up. We’d love to know what changes you track down.

Update: Store’s back up. Word is that the Mac Pro has been updated? Oh yeah, check out that 12-core. These are the machines that were announced at the end of July, but they weren’t on the store yet — now they’re all showing 7-12 days ship time.

Thanks everyone who tipped us!

TUAWThe sticky is up and the Store is down (Update: And back up) originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 09 Aug 2010 04:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a relatively quiet weekend in the Apple world, with not much to talk about other than the opening of a huge flagship Apple Store in London and the departure of an Apple VP from the executive suites. These newsy items should serve as fodder for an evening of fun chat on the TUAW Talkcast. We start at 10 PM EDT / 7 PM PDT / 4 PM DRT (DocRockTime).

To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the “TalkShoe Web” button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 — during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8.

If you’ve got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free X-Lite SIP client; basic instructions are here. Of course, the full TalkShoe client includes its own ‘Shoephone’ VoIP tool as well. For MP3 streaming on iPhone or iPad, you can try this link once the show starts (may or may not work).

TUAWJoin us for the TUAW Talkcast tonight at 10 PM EDT originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hey remember when AT&T’s awkward CEO (then Cingular CEO) joined Steve Jobs in 2007 at Macworld with his awesome notecards and stilted announcement of exclusivity for the iPhone? Yeah, that and thousands of dropped calls later should have been a big, red warning to you conspiracy theorists that some day the iPhone would free itself from the big blue clutches of AT&T. Of course it’ll happen, it’s always been a matter of when. And every site in the tech universe yet again buzzes with the name Verizon this weekend as various tea leaves have been read to suggest January as a date. Maybe. Pencil it in, among the dozens of other rumored days/years/epochs, so you can start queueing up for something that hasn’t even been announced.

Except, not really. TechCrunch makes a rather uneducated guess as to a January launch — except that it’d be months before the usual summer announcement that hovers over WWDC these past few years. That and Apple doesn’t attend Macworld any more (insert world’s biggest eye roll here). Their guess is based on a big rumored order of CDMA chips — although commenters point out this could be for a Chinese carrier. Engadget has a more nebulous date of “maybe someday” given the Q2 earnings report from AT&T which vaguely states that they’ll still be making money once “these exclusivity arrangements end.” I don’t know how many exclusive phones AT&T has (all are highly death-grippable, I’m sure), but let’s think of at least one runaway hit that could potentially ding their bottom line and dream, shall we?

Personally I’m not betting anything until Verizon rolls out their LTE network quite a bit. iPhone on T-Mobile makes more sense at this point. Why? Currently on Verizon’s 3G network you can’t have a phone conversation and use data at the same time. No way is Apple going to downgrade the functionality of their phone just for the sake of “more” customers. In case you haven’t followed the company for 20 years, here’s the deal: they care more about making customers happy than getting more customers. This “secret sauce” that companies like Microsoft, Sony and Dell can’t fathom will play out in this cellular phone market as well. Once Verizon provides a better experience than AT&T, we’ll certainly see a Verizon iPhone. Unless Verizon insists on the bloaty crapware and big honkin’ V they put on all their phones — that could further delay such a deal.

TUAWVerizon iPhone, stop us if you’ve heard this before originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mark Papermaster has left Apple after a year and a half stint that involved work on the new iPhone 4. Papermaster was Apple’s Senior VP of Devices Hardware Engineering.

The New York Times reports no comment from Papermaster, and quotes Apple as saying that Bob Mansfield, Senior Vice President of Macintosh Hardware Engineering, is taking his place.

There is a good deal of speculation that the change was due to all the controversy over the iPhone antenna design, but no one except senior Apple executives and Papermaster himself know for sure. Some media reports have quoted Apple insiders as saying the iPhone antenna design was done before Papermaster ever came on board.

Also, Apple has never admitted to an antenna problem, and firing Papermaster could put Apple in a weak position defending the antenna design. One can spin just about any theory about the executive change, but until someone says something official it’s just speculation.

[Via the New York Times]

TUAWApple senior iPhone exec leaves. Was it all about the iPhone antenna? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Apple Store Covent Garden opened in London this weekend to great crowds and fanfare, and of course we’ve been inundated with photos, video, and personal stories about the opening. We’d love to thank all of you for your input, as we all love Apple Store openings as much as anyone!

Mike Hellers took some wonderful footage of the opening in 720p HD video with his iPhone 4. Not just any iPhone 4 — this one was sitting on a customized Hague Mini Motion-Cam for extra steady camera work. Another short video by drcjep showing Mike and the Motion-cam follows on page 2.

TUAWFound Footage: Apple Store Covent Garden opening in iPhone 4 HD originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It just might. AT&T support boards are filling up with reports from unhappy customers saying the MicroCell, designed to provide excellent AT&T 3G reception in a house or office, simply isn’t working well with the iPhone 4.

Users are reporting a good deal of audio breakup on incoming calls, although the person on the other send of the conversation can hear things just fine. Walking toward the device usually helps, and some users saying turning off the iPhone’s cellular data clears up the problem. People are even posting videos demonstrating the issue. It doesn’t seem to be a matter of range. People are getting the audio ‘stuttering’ even with 5 bars of signal strength.

I’ve experienced the problem with my MicroCell as well. AT&T thought the hardware was bad, and cheerfully exchanged it. The problem, although intermittent, remained.

TUAWDoes the iPhone 4 hate the AT&T MicroCell? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 08 Aug 2010 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is a weird one. FutureTap was surprised to recognize one of their app’s screens in a strange place: a recent Apple patent outlining how a possible travel application could work. The company wasn’t quite sure what to do next — as you can see above, it’s a straightforward copy of the Where To? screen. Without any contact from Apple on the issue, FutureTap was puzzled — the company calls Apple its “primary business partner.” Having your app show up in an Apple patent filing

Not that Apple is above cherry-picking UI and functionality from third-party apps — the iBooks interface was more or less borrowed whole from apps like Delicious Library and Classics, and further back there was the homage of Karelia Software’s Watson reinterpreted as Apple’s revision to Sherlock. In those cases, both developers just sort of shrugged, felt flattered, and let it go. That’s not the situation here — these screenshots probably aren’t illustrations of a product Apple wants to make, they’re explanations of how the patent would work.

As Engadget’s Nilay Patel clarifies for us (so nice to have an attorney around), not only is this merely a patent application (which could possibly still be denied), but Apple isn’t trying to lay claim to the actual screenshot; rather the company is using an example application which illustrates the to-be-patented functionality (in the case of Where To?, the ability of an iPhone to auto-detect when a user has been traveling). As Nilay puts it:

…the only operative parts of a patent are the claims — not the drawings, and not the description, which are technically known as the “specification.” (We’ve now repeated this basic axiom of patent interpretation so many times we’re considering making T-shirts.) The only reason the drawings and description are there is to explain the claimed invention in sufficient detail so that someone else can make it. Remember, patents are a trade: in order to get protection, you have to give up the full details of how your invention works. (The other option is to keep your invention a trade secret, but then you can’t prevent anyone else from figuring it out and using it if it gets out.) Bottom line? If it’s not in the claims, it’s not in the patent.

We’ll have to see what FutureTap does — the company might request that Apple remove the Where To? screenshot from the patent application, but at this point it’s not clear that Apple wants to lay claim to that particular app. What is clear is that Apple could have avoided a lot of hassle and furor if it had simply sent FutureTap an email asking to use a screenshot in a patent filing. In the meantime, FutureTap execs are huddled with their lawyers, trying to make sure they understand what’s going on.

TUAWWhy Apple’s patents might show screens from third-party apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 07 Aug 2010 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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That poor Finder icon. The Rodney Dangerfield of Apple products, he gets no respect. Heck, he’s nowhere to be found on the iPhone or the iPad, and he just sits down in the Dock of the Mac, getting little or no work from anybody.

It’s apparent that Mr. Finder has had his fill of Apple and the Mac, as he’s now finding work elsewhere. TUAW reader Aleksander found Mr. Finder hanging out on the back of a new Canon A3000IS digital camera, where he’s apparently used to enable a face detection function. Sure, the FInder icon has tried to cover up his face by putting on a little makeup to get rid of that two-tone blue tan, and it looks like he may have also gotten a little rhinoplasty, but it’s him.

We’re wondering just how widespread Mr. Finder’s disloyalty to Apple really is. If you happen to find him anywhere else, snap a photo of him, send it to Flickr, and tag it with TUAW so the world will know.

TUAWPicasa find: Finder icon gets a new job on Canon digicam originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sat, 07 Aug 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Valve’s Jason Holtman and Doug Lombardi recently sat down with GamesIndustry.biz to discuss their big release of Steam on the Mac, and not only do they reiterate that great stat that games released on the Mac see a nice bump in sales, but they say that the best days of Mac gaming are yet to come. They can’t share numbers yet on just how many Mac vs. PC players there are (though they say the response has been great, and you can see Mac players in games often), but Holtman and Lombardi both say that from small game developers to big game publishers, Steam on Mac has helped everyone see just how active and important the Mac gaming scene is. There are international users on Macs, and the amount of player interest in games for the platform has made developers rethink their old plans of releasing a Mac port when they get to it rather than day and date with the PC title.

That is, in a word, awesome. And Lombardi says now that publishers are interested in the platform as whole, we’ll see some “different types of experiment on pricing and promotion and all that stuff on Mac titles,” as companies try to figure out how to make the most of this market they’ve been neglecting for so long.

Valve has already said that bringing Steam to the Mac was the most significant decision they’ve made with the service, but I’d argue that even this early in the process (even Valve admits that it doesn’t have a lot of data yet on how people use the two platforms), it was a seismic event for Mac gaming as well.

TUAWValve talks gaming on the Mac, says best is yet to come originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This is wild — a new startup called GearBox is working on making “smart toys,” and one of their first products is a prototype rolling ball that’s controlled with your iPhone (or other smartphone, of course). Not only can you move the ball around on the ground with your phone’s touchscreen, but the ball has gadgetry inside that can affect and monitor its motion, so you can do things like play “Office Golf” (and the ball can notify you when it’s reached the hole), try some virtual curling, or play a multi-ball game. There’s lots of gadgetry inside, too, so the ball could be made to travel slower or in a strange pattern, or even glow with ambient information. It’s also wirelessly connected to the iPhone (and thus to the Internet), so you could have it monitor online resources like Facebook or Twitter, and then react to that data as well.

Unfortunately, this is still just a prototype — there’s no information about a price or release date at all. But it’s obviously a really intriguing idea, and depending on actual implementation, it could be a really amazing product. We’ll have to keep an eye out for how GearBox eventually decides to put this together in the future.

[via TouchArcade]

TUAWiPhone-controlled marble prototype from GearBox originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 06 Aug 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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