Ryan Petrich Has Done It Again

So we all remember Clippy, right? It hasn’t been that long since OS 3.0’s been out. But already so many people have forgotten about Ryan’s groundbreaking app, Clippy, that allowed us to do copy-and-pasting of text.

I feel for Ryan. Here’s a dude who creates something great and releases it for free to the world. Everybody’s all talkin’ great things about it, then, once Apple decides to include copy-and-paste in their OS update, everyone (including myself) drops Clippy like a bad habit.

Does anyone remember that he worked hard on releasing something to us for free? Na… they couldn’t care less. I bet he was thinkin’ “I do all this hard work, ask only for donations, which no one gives, and now… all that hard work was for nothing. I should have charges those ungrateful people for Clippy if I knew they would do this.”.

Well it looks like he’s not goin’ out like that, and this time, he’s not takin’ the same crap from people like us. Just like he did with Clippy, he’s done it again. He’s released a much, much needed feature to iPhones; spell check. But not some cheesy-*** app you type in words to… an actual “system” integrated into iPhone 3.0’s system.

I’m sure he thought “Darn that Apple, they copied my system for copying-and-pasting with OS 3.0, and then added functionality to enhance something I created from scratch…” and thought “Since you built on an idea I created, I’m gonna’ built an add-on from the text selection system you created…” and came up with Inspell.

Inspell is a spell checking system that’s integrated into OS 3.0’s text selection system. When you select text, your presented with your usual copy, paste, cut, ect… but if your word is misspelled or a unique word (i.e. “funkalisious”) you get an extra option now, “Correct”. Correct brings up a pop-up that gives you a list of words it could be, or gives you the option to add it to the directory. But it’s not just that… it also adds a red underline under all words that are misspelled. That’s the best part of all. Bring able to see, instantly, as as you type if you’ve misspelled a word, just like your computer.

Ryan’s done it again. And this time, it’s not free. I hate apps that cost money, but I totally understand him charging for this app. It’s like, screw giving it for free, if people want it, this time they’re going to make a donation… a donation of $2.99, the actual price of the app. This time he’s makin’ sure he gets compensated for his tine and work.

I wanted to try it out, but there’s no trial. I’m not buying anything if I can’t tell if it works or if it’s even worth it. Mama didn’t raise no fool, so I installed a cracked version.

It worked, didn’t slow down the system… Cydia said there was an update for Inspell… I updated it and it was actually a patch by Ryan to display pop-ups every now and then to my cracked version, sayin’ somethin’ like “Please pay for my app”. Yeah, I’ll get to that later…

So from what I could tell, it worked perfectly. Flawless in fact. It functions as if it were built right into the OS by Apple. I tried it out for less than an hour and I was hooked. ‘Ight Ryan, you got my $3.24 (Paypal). I wondered “Hmm, will this work over the cracked version?”. Sure ‘nough, it did.

I really hate the idea of spending money on apps, but the day I’ve had Inspell, that measly $3.24 is so worth it. I mean, I spent $1.89 on a soda today at a Chinese joint today, so $3.24 ain’t nothin’.

I’m so freakin’ impressed with this app. I think it’s even more important than Clippy was. This is just as important as Backgrounder, if not more important. Speed seems good with Inspell, like I’m typin’ in the Wordpress app while playing net radio via WunderRadio in the background (from Backgrounder) and Inspell is of course running with the system. System speed doesn’t seem to be affected by it.

So, I’m extremely impressed. Hopefully it won’t have a negative impact on system speed later on. I’m freakin’ thrilled to have this baby.

Nice job Ryan, but my advice is to offer a five day trail of Inspell (like Adblock does) ‘cuz expecting people to pay for something without trying it is kinda’ nuts and’ll drive people to piracy.

Peace, J

No Backgrounder For OS 3.0??

Yo, I don’t know if I should be pissed… or sad. Checked up on Bigboss, and they say that there isn’t a version of Backgrounder for OS 3.0. Serious? Freak man…

Now this doesn’t mean they won’t come out with a version for 3.0… but not saying there “will be” a version coming out, they could have trouble getting it to work for 3.0.

So freak man… we lose our ability to have backgrounding with 3.0?? I ain’t sad, I ain’t pissed… I’m just… bummed. I almost would say… “Is it even worth upgrading to 3.0 if we can’t use backgrounder?”. Well I’m not gonna’ say that… ‘cuz there are so many things added with OS 3.0, and honestly, OS 3.0 is the standard now, so we can’t avoid upgrading because one of our most useful features doesn’t work. We need to upgrade to make sure there is pressure and desire for the creators to find a way to make it work.

And I’ll be looking forward to dumping Clippy for the built-in copy-and-paste, for the improved system speed of not running Clippy with the system. So upgrading is worth it, even if not with Backgrounder.

But not havin’ Backgrounder, ****… that’s gonna’ be like sayin’ good bye to a hot girlfriend for the summer… you know (hope) she’ll be back, but the wait is just killin’ ya…

Peace, J

Thanks Ryan Petrich

I was loungin’ out on my bed, watchin’ some good ‘ol TV programmin’, messin’ with the NeoCell and I thought to myself, “You know, the least I could do is thank that dude who created Clippy”.

So, that’s what I did. I went into Cydia, went into the manage, looked up Clippy, clicked the contact, whiched opened my email and thanked the dude propa’.

I suggest you do the same if you’ve been using’ Clippy.

Peace, J

Clippy: Enjoy It Now

Ahh, Clippy… It’s the little jailbroken app that allows us to do something amazing… copy and paste. That seems so stupid, being able to copy and paste is such a simple thing. But no, it’s something missing from iPhones and, because of Clippy, we’re able to copy and paste.

There’s been a lotta’ bugs with Clippy, and even just a few weeks ago, Clippy was buggin’ the **** outta’ me when it would come up at all the wrong times. But the programmer has gotten all the bugs out of it to a point where it feels really solid. In fact, the programmer says it’s still in beta and to wait for it to become version 1.0 instead of 0.98 it is now.

But it’s funny, and sad, that the dude’s been workin’ on this for so long and almost has it out of beta, when in just a few months the iPhone 3.0 software will be out and… it’s jailbroken counterpart immediately following it’s release (said to be the next day or so). Why’s the 3.0 software matter? Because they’ll include a full funtioning copy and paste feature. And, and… it’ll be more advanced than Clippy. (Of course it will be more advanced, it’s designed into the OS whereas Clippy was hacked into the OS. Not Clippy’s fault. )

For those of you wondering, there won’t be any reason for people to use Clippy at all. There will be some people too lazy or scared to upgrade to the jailbroken 3.0 OS, sure… But everybody will be moving to 3.0. Some people say they won’t even jailbreak, they’ll just move to 3.0 and leave it as copying and pasting (Clippy) was the only reason they had to jailbreak.

So what will become of Clippy? It’s going to be replaced… All the people that adored it will just leave in the dust. Everyone will just forget about the programmer who worked so hard to give us a free program.

It’s sad… but I’ll be the first to admit I can’t wait to get rid of it for an Apple-produced copy and paste system. Sorry Clippy, it’s not you… it’s me. Really. We can still be friends… Oh, my new girlfriend, OS 3.0, says she doesn’t want me talkin’ to you… Sorry.

Sad Clippy’s gonna’ get dumped in such a harsh way. But have you seen the rack on OS 3.0?! Ohh-baby!

Peace, J