Zooming with responsive design

Discovered something new tonight.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1, maximum-scale=1">

is a lot different than:

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

When I started building out a responsive site for our organization, I ran into some snags with font sizes and such and kept running across “be sure to include” the top line of code when working with responsive design.

No one gave much explanation – just said it was needed.

You may have already figured this out – but it’s the last two attributes that make the biggest difference.

As I understand it now, initial-scale is the scale the site initial loads with.

Maximum-scale is the maximum size the user can scale the site to. So if you set a max of 1 – well there will be no pinch and zooming on your site.

Or if you set it to 2, 3 or 10, etc – that’s the max zoom a user can use.

So do us all a favor and leave that last bit (maximum-scale=1) off. Don’t limit your users. Let them navigate however they feel best.

Apple brings networks to their knees

This afternoon around 1 p.m. iOS 7 went live (in our area at least).

Shortly there after our organization’s Internet came to a crawl (or so I hear – I was working from home).

I dropped a quick email to our network admin:

iOS 7 anyone? 😉

(I’m at home so don’t blame me)

Sure enough – later tonight I got an email confirming my suggestion. iTunes was using roughly 400MBits or more than 40% of our organization’s Internet connection.

I think @Saddington was right to be impressed that Apple’s network could handle the load of all those downloads.

https://twitter.com/saddington/status/380396490990309376

iTunes Radio – an unexpected mix

iradio

Listening to the new iTunes Radio today.

Started out perhaps appropriately with “Maiden Voyage” by Herbie Hancock earlier today.

Tonight I created a new station with U2 as the starting point and so far it’s been fairly predictable.

Coldplay, Snow Patrol, REM, Goo Goo Dolls, Florence + The Machine.

But now… Copperhead Road by Steve Earl?!

Not that I don’t enjoy the song… but who matched that one up?

Have you tried iTunes Radio yet? Or upgraded to iOS 7? What do you think? Will iRadio be the end of sites like Pandora or Songza?

Homelessness not Hopelessness

There are roughly 2 million youths who experience homelessness every year.

Many of these kids are on the street due to issues beyond their control.

Girls that are being sexually molested by their fathers and boys who are being physically abused by their supposed loved ones, run away and are left on the streets because of the harsh card life has dealt them.

Roughly 2 million youths…

Let that sink in for a moment before watching this:

I found out about this campaign via Mark Horvath.

I’ve talked about Mark Horvath and his great work with Invisible People before. And I even had the chance to hang out this year IRL at SxSW and it was awesome to see that even in the midst of all that was going on (parties, events, etc.) – he still carried a backpack full of fresh socks (or freshies) to hand out to those on the streets of Austin.

As part of his own work to end homelessness, Mark kicked off a cross-country tour last month and he’s been highlighting the stories of homeless youth across the country. And this week he announced his partnership with Virgin Mobile, RE*Generation and Sevenly to help raise funds to help keep teens off the street.

“I understand where these kids are coming from. I was homeless myself but with the help and kindness of others, I was able get out of my dire situation. Our homeless youth deserve that chance and much more,” said Horvath. “These kids need compassion, guidance and care. With Sevenly.org and The RE*Generation, I believe we can really make a significant difference.”

To raise funds, Sevenly is selling some great shirts and for every shirt sold, $7 will go towards RE*Generation. And as a bonus… if 3,000 people share the Sevenly website this week (they’re at 1600 shares currently) Virgin Mobile will throw in an additional $50,000 to support RE*Generation.

So buy a shirt and share the site and do something to help end youth homelessness… and next time you’re out, grab an extra bag of socks to handout yourself. I know many would appreciate a clean pair of socks as much (if not more) than your spare change.

To see some of the teens already helped visit InvisiblePeople.tv or Mark’s Tumblr.