Vance Tran » News

DIY Websites with WordPress + The Mobile Web

Vance — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 04:22:37 +0000

I gave a talk at a meeting of the Society for Design Administration about DIY websites using WordPress and the mobile web. If you’re curious, download the slide deck (20 MB PDF). Special thanks to Kellyn Sanderson and Jamie Shirey for inviting me to this wonderful event.

New Business Cards

Vance — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 01:05:02 +0000

I finally ordered my first batch of mini Moo cards. Just in time for the upcoming presentation.

I Heard You Like Design Iterations

Vance — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 06:56:13 +0000

I’m happy to have finally launched my revamped website. A dynamic front page and portfolio section were sorely missing from the previous versions and this update remedied the issue. The development of this version took a bit longer than expected due to the design being in the oven too long. 75% into this project, I had the urge to redesign this new redesign. Luckily I came to my senses and decided to go with what I had and revisit it later. To budge the project from its rut, I set a hard due date for myself and stuck to it. Anyway, I hope you enjoy that design iteration video complete with the outdated Xzibit macro meme.

Preventing Spotlight from Showing Parallels Windows Apps

Vance — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 22:49:55 +0000

I’ve been using Parallels to run Windows on my Mac for a while now to test out my websites under Internet Explorer 6 and 7 – super handy. A very annoying artifact of Parallels, however, is that Windows applications show up in Spotlight, which I use frequently to launch Mac apps.

Here’s a quick tip to get them out of there. Go to your System Preferences under the  (Apple) menu and click on Spotlight. Go to the Privacy tab and drag and drop in the Home/Documents/Parallels folder. Tada – no more Windows apps cluttering your Spotlight searches.

Resolutions Update

Vance — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:45:56 +0000

Alright…. So, I haven’t exactly held fast to my resolutions, but I do feel that they have helped to shape my daily behavior. I cook, read, and blog way more than I have in the past few years. Overall, I’m glad that I set some goals and targets. Next thing I need to tackle is making more of those vector graphics.

An App Store on Every Mac

Vance — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 01:09:42 +0000

The iPhone’s App Store has proven to be such a monumental success that Apple should extend the idea to its other devices and computers such as the Mac and Apple TV.

The main draw for me regarding the App Store is that it is so easy to install apps. It only requires a few clicks to download and install the latest applications. App updates also show up in a centralized interface. Sure, installing an app on Mac OS is already easy, but it can be even easier by having a single click and install process. Having a single App Store service could help developers promote their apps due it’s tight integration with iTunes and also generate more revenue for Apple if they take the standard 30% cut that they usually take with iPhone apps.

A longshot, but something that would be welcome is an App Store on the Apple TV. Boxee already is a fantastic extendable media center platform, but it is not something that the regular user would play with. An App Store for the Apple TV could bring the kind of rich web information that Boxee offers like Weather, Maps, Email, and Stocks in a way that a mainstream consumer could understand. Being able to listen to Pandora via an Apple TV would be an epic win for me personally. There would be a problem with text entry, but I’m sure something could be worked out. The Boxee iPhone app already has demonstrated text entry via the iPhone touchscreen keyboard. A physical keyboard seems out of the question since Steve Jobs has an apparent disdain for buttons.

Voodoo Doll for iPhone

Vance — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:59:27 +0000

I’ve started a new iPhone app company with my friends, Tommy and Jennifer, called PersonaTap. We recently released our first app, Voodoo Doll. It’s a stress-relief app that was inspired by my big-sis, Karen. You can poke the doll with needles and even put in pictures of your enemies from the iPhone camera or photo library. Give it a try and let me know what you think!

Voodoo Doll on the App Store

Hit the jump to see video of the app in action.

Shuffle Reactions

Vance — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:55:52 +0000

I have absolutely no plans to purchase Apple’s latest shiny widget, the iPod Shuffle. It’s really not for me. I have plenty of perfectly capable and buttoned media players. The thing I really like about the Shuffle, though, is its headphone integrated controls. I’ve seen that the iPhone already sports similar controls, but the ones on the new Shuffle are more substantial. It has volume up and down buttons in addition to the single play/pause button. Hopefully this pair of stock headphones will crop up in all future Apple media devices, including the upcoming iPhone revision in June.

Save Money on Games by Staying Behind the Curve

Vance — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 11:35:59 +0000

I’ve made it a personal goal of mine to hold off on purchasing the newest and shiniest game. I can save a lot of money on my gaming hobby if I just remain a little patient. Video games usually drop to 50% of their initial retail price within six months. Plus since I’m a proud new owner of an Xbox 360, I have a huge backlog of great cheap games. Buying old used games are a great way to save cash and keep playing during this economic slowdown.

Blogging on the iPod Touch

Vance — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 16:31:30 +0000

I’m giving the ipod/iphone app for wordpress a whirl with this post. Funny that my first post in a while would be in a device that is notoriously bad to type on.