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From Forbes: developers are readying programs that will actually run on the iPhone, instead of just in the Safari web browser. There’s a wide variety of web-based applications available, but these programs don’t offer the speed and features that an application that is actually running on the iPhone could provide. Web-based applications also have to respect firewall and security rules in order to access any Web-based data.

Apple has not released a Software Developers Kit (SDK) that contains tools that help programmers access the iPhone’s resident applications like the address book and calendar.

Windows Mobile, Palm and Symbian mobile phones do run applications directly. The operating system developers released SDKs long ago.

Apple has maintained strict control over the iPhone application market through the company’s exclusive agreements with mobile carriers. Carriers either want to sell the iPhone or sometime like it, as I discussed on 13 January 2008. It’s widely assumed that Apple will let programmers sell their iPhone applications through iTunes, which is the management software for iPhone users. Ars Technica revealed that an iPhone application installation key – a very long string of numbers – has been identified by some programmers and released on the Internet as an image file.

Of course, Apple would take a percentage on any software sold through iTunes. The Forbes article mentions 30 percent as a possible fee. As Marc Hedlund pointed out last November, the Sidekick uses a similar business model. As a Sidekick user, I agree with Marc – I hate paying for features on my phone. The Sidekick 3 doesn’t include a world clock, for example. Users have to navigate to the phone’s download screen and buy a clock.

One of the Sidekick’s original developers, Andy Rubin, now works for Google on its Open Handset Alliance project. I mentioned the project on 5 November 2007. Here are some other articles about the rumored gPhone.

There are third-party iPhone applications available, of course. Some of these are designed to unlock the iPhone, or to add an application installer feature.

But Apple can break these unauthorized applications or change the application installation key at any time by updating the iPhone firmware, as I mentioned on 26 January 2008.

I’m testing a web-based research tool called Zotero. I hope this free service can replace bibliographic database products like EndNote and Citation. I’ve recommended that software to IS 6100 and professional paper students. However, both products cost over US$100 for the student versions.

Zotero is free. It’s an add-on that can be installed in the Firefox web browser. The database is saved in that computer. I’m looking for a way to overcome this limitation. Zotero will not work well or at all with Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari.

Like other software packages, Zotero can capture citation information from web pages. This is a very helpful feature, especially for users who are dealing with long reference lists. Users can import listings directly from EBSCO and ABI.

It’s also possible to add photos from Flickr and materials from the Internet Archive. Zotero keeps adding support for more sites, and web site developers can add some support on their own. Yesterday, I added Zotero support to this blog. Zotero users can click the icon in the address bar to add a billso.com article to their Zotero library.

Zotero also plays nice with Microsoft Office and its leading freeware competitor, OpenOffice. The OpenOffice software can be downloaded from its web site.

One feature I want to try is file management. Zotero can import PDFs and other documents into its search database. I usually save web pages and articles as PDFs for long-term storage.

Of course, a big reason to use any bibliography manager is auto-formatting. Any decent bibliography package, including Zotero, let users build a reference list. The software then creates a list with the user’s choice of formatting, such as APA style.

Please note that I will not require my IS 6100 and IS 7010 students to use Zotero or Firefox, of course.

When I graded the Paper 2 assignments for my courses, I tried a feature in TurnItIn.com’s GradeMark system. It’s a scoring matrix that helps me calculate assignment grades.

I usually have a scoring matrix in my assignments. It’s printed at the end of the assignment document, after the questions and requirements. This is an example from the IS 6100 Paper 2 assignment for the Fall 2007 term.

In previous courses, I would append a completed matrix to the graded assignment.

When I started using GradeMark last year, I just typed scores into the TurnItIn.com general comments box. There’s no way for me to append a page to an existing document in a TurnItIn.com assignment.

The matrix lets me allocate points to each row or item in my grading scheme. The columns represent a grading scale. After I type in my remarks and fill in the general comments screen, I can check the approriate cells in the matrix to calculate a grade.

I’m a visual person, and I’ve used a similar format in printed scoring tables.

I didn’t connect the vertical scale to the letter grades.

Also, the draft and peer review items are scored in those assignments, so I did not include them in the scoring matrix shown below.

This screenshot of a TurnItIn.com scoring matrix is from my instructor account, so it might be different from the student view.

This matrix is available in the printable version of the GradeMark report, and the total grade will appear in the TurnItIn.com gradebook. See my article from 5 February 2007 for more information on viewing GradeMark reports.

During the term, the point value of each assignment increases. I’ll add more rows to the scoring matrix to distribute the points in reasonable amounts.

One issue I’ve run into is the scoring matrix editor. It tends to crash for no reason. I had to close the editing window, but at least the crash didn’t take down my web browser or the operating system. It took me 3 attempts to create the matrix shown above.

Both of my courses have peer reviews that are due Monday at noon HT (IS 6100 details are here; the IS 7010 details are here).

Students can get to the peer review feature by following these instructions.

Log in to TurnItIn.com.

Click on the link for our course.

Click on the link labeled “Peer review”. Click the screenshot below for an example. The screenshots are more legible when clicked.

On the next screen, click on the yellow-and-black pencil icon to start the review. See the blue arrow in the screenshot below.

Scroll through the paper. Remember that graphics or images in the original paper might not appear, because TurnItIn.com only displays formatted text.

The mark feature is a bit awkward to use, so I have included a plain old text field for written comments. I suggest that students write their written comments in Word or a text editor, then copy-n-paste the comments in the browser’s text field.

Please rate each paper by using the radio buttons on the top of the screen.

Remember that 1 means “poor”, 3 is “average” and 5 is “excellent”.

Here’s another screenshot with an example.

After completing the ratings, press “Submit” to move to the next paper.

On some computers, TurnItin.com might not show that a review has been completed. This is a bug in their system that we discovered in class last night. As long as the “Submit” button was pressed, I should be able to see the reviews.

Students who have more questions should take a look at pages 12-15 in the TurnItIn.com student manual at http://www.turnitin.com/static/pdf/tii_student_qs.pdf. It’s a nice overview.

My IS 6100 will be fascinated to learn that this web-based application is also an example of a group support system or groupware, as discussed in chapter 7 on page 260.

Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, Lotus Notes and many other applications have tools that allow individuals to add comments, ratings, and other content to another user’s documents.

This is helpful when working in a group, as the software allows participants to make edits and comments without altering the original document. A supervisor or group member with appropriate rights can review the changes, and then edit, return, reject or accept the changed items into the document as needed.

TurnItIn’s peer review system is about as usable a web-based system as I’ve seen. Limitations in web browsers and operating systems make the design of a web-based reviewing application quite challenging.

On the other hand, students do not need to install additional software to use the peer review system. This kind of peer review would be difficult to manage on WebCT, and quite a burden in email.

I completed some tweaks to the blog Thursday evening, and they’re worth mentioning.

It’s easy to update articles in WordPress, the server software I use for this blog. Sometimes I edit an article to include new links or updated information.

The 3 September article on ad blocking is a good example. I updated that article today, and now the article’s header looks like this:

Notice the text that says “Updated” – this indicates when I changed this article.

I’ve also made it easier to see blog articles that have comments by adding a visible hyperlink after the article’s title. Sometimes I add comments to an article instead of updating the article itself, and sometimes user have added their own comments:

This screenshot also shows the new format I’m using to display articles on the home page and in search results.
An excerpt of the articles first words will appear, followed by the relevant hyperlinked tags. Just click the article title or the (more…) link to see the entire article. This is a good way to get additional clicks from readers, and to pull them deeper into a web site.

The excerpt isn’t a summary or abstract of the article. It’s just enough text to show the reader how the article begins.

I display excerpts on the home page and in search results to keep these pages small. This helps keep the site responsive and usable for readers with mobile device or limited bandwidth. Google Analytics has shown me that most users access this site at broadband speeds, but I want to accommodate all users, as discussed here.

Of course, the RSS feeds on this site will always display the entire article, including tags. Most RSS readers will also retrieve the updated version of each article.