Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten

Viva la Revolucion!

We bought 15 iPhones in San Francisco last year for all our friends. Last Friday Patrick and I went to the T-Mobile store and bought iPhones. They didn't have them in stock so we will have to wait for a few weeks before we actually get them. There are several reason why you could get an iPhone but I want to talk about one reason in particular in this post. By buying, using and developing for the iPhone right now you can participate in the start of a new era in computing. Yep, I'm serious....

Wordpress iPhone App

Trying out the iPhone app for Wordpress on my iPod touch. Works pretty well but cle arly a 0.1 product. Can't find out how to delete blogs and adding a new blog publishes an empty post. Besides that it does make the iPhone and iPod touch extra interesting for bloggers. It also let's you add photos or screenshots to new posts, as you can see: (updated the posts slightly afterward so it looked better. I aligned the image right instead of posting it beneath the...

Slurpr demo for Werner Vogels

Yesterday evening I had some people over for dinner including Werner Vogels. He is the CTO of Amazon.com. He noticed my Slurpr and wanted to know what it does and how it worked. I showed the device and told him all about it. Then he persuaded me to pitch the device on video for him. This was at the end of the evening after a lot of champagne and wine and I was very tired. The result: ...

Don’t Hang Up Boris!

Just heard an internet entrepreneur complain about his parents' use of their mobile phones. They switch them off when they are at home and often forget to turn them on when they leave the house. Our generation carries a mobile phone at all times and sometimes doesn't even have a home phone. This is hard to explain to our parents and other older people. The entrepreneur urged them to simply keep the phone on at all times which they warily refused. They told him they didn't like the prospect of...

Sync BlackBerry + Google Calendar

Keeping my Blackberry synced with my mac has been a constant struggle for years now. I tried several software solutions and often destroyed my calendar. Right now there is one appointment in my calendar that accidently got itself duplicated 3000 times. I can't go to that week or iCal crashes. I can't delete them either because that also crashes iCal. I could delete all older events but then I lose everything. So I just ignore it. Today Google announced something that might help: BlackBerry...

The ONLY Black iPhone In The World

A few weeks ago I dropped my iPhone on the kitchen floor and cracked the glass. I was extremely disappointed and shared my feelings on Twitter. But then Oscar Kneppers came up with a beautiful plan. I'm not going into all the details here because I want to leave that to Bright Magazine but it involved Mark Hoekstra and you can see the result here: The Black iPhone: http://geektechnique.org/projectlab/822/paint-it-black-the-iphone I am so proud that MY old iPhone is now THE coolest...

Wakoopa Tracks iPhone Software!

Wakoopa, a company I own shares in, today announced a new product/service. They now track usage on iPhones too. We all own iPhones at the office and I think it is a smart move to take advantage of the iPhones popularity this way. Here is the official press release: PRESS RELEASE - Amsterdam, October 22 2007 Software startup makes iPhone usage transparent Amsterdam-based company Wakoopa has announced today that it's tracking worldwide iPhone usage. Since January, Wakoopa has been...

Steve Jobs: Design & The Washing Machine

As you might know I have a huge (complete!) collection of Wired Magazines. Regularly I grab a random copy and browse through it. Today I grabbed a 1996 issue with Steve Jobs on the cover. I only read half of the article but was thrilled when I found a quote that made a huge impression on me when I first read it. The last question that Gary Wolf asks is "Is there anything well designed today that inspires you?". Steve Jobs then tells a very personal story about his ideas about design and how...