High Caffeine Content

Growing Up Geek

2011-12-25T07:37:00.003Z

Welcome to Growing Up Geek, an ongoing feature where we take a look back at our youth and tell stories of growing up to be the nerds that we are. Today, we have a special guest: programmer, app designer, artist and geek, Steven Troughton-Smith.

If you've ever wanted to know that little bit more about me, Engadget's Growing Up Geek piece just went live! It's times like these I wish I posted more here.

Nokia N9 : Redux

2011-10-28T07:06:00.005+01:00

A year ago, I was introduced to MeeGo at the MeeGo Conference in Dublin. A Linux-based OS backed by Nokia and Intel, it was full of potential, designed to be the future of Linux for netbooks, tablets, smartphones and other embedded devices. Several thousand developers and hackers rejoiced at the free tablets Intel gave out to get MeeGo hardware into peoples' hands.

Not long afterwards, that MeeGo was dead.

MeeGo, as we saw it, died the moment Nokia announced that they were choosing Windows Phone as their future smartphone strategy. Nokia, in fact, was the most important proponent of MeeGo, as it was to be their saving grace in mobile; quite simply, if Nokia didn't make MeeGo succeed they were going to be history. Instead, Nokia chose plan B, switching to another platform entirely, leaving Intel with a massive project that they had neither the skills nor the will to complete. A few months after Nokia pulled out, Intel announced they were moving MeeGo development to a new web-based OS and leaving the rest to open-source maintainers.

Yet Nokia still promised that they would create a 'MeeGo' smartphone. It would be their Qt halo device, the flagship phone for the development platform that was quickly becoming the primary platform for their Symbian devices.

Expectations were high; photographs of prototype devices had leaked and the hardware was handsome - aluminum and glass, with a keen likeness to Apple's MacBook Pro. We expected a nerdy developer device with a moderately cool open source and hackable OS, a true successor to the N900.

Instead, Nokia unveiled a "concept car", stunningly beautiful with an amazing OS that blends the gorgeous design and ease of use of iOS with a real, hackable, GNU/Linux core. This concept car was actually coming to market, and they called it the N9.

I've written about the N9 before, and what I think about the OS based on the N950 developer device I was given. Now, I have the final retail hardware on my desk, and it's every bit as awesome as expected. The polycarbonate unibody construction feels amazing in hand. What they characterize as an inky black screen looks phenomenal. What I expected to be a crummy door on the top (for the USB port and microSIM slot) is a really nice mechanism, solid with a spring to it. The microSIM door slides sideways and pops out in a really nice way. The speaker system fascinates me, as even when you cover the speaker entirely your music doesn't drop off in volume or muffle horribly - you won't accidentally silence video playback or games by covering it with your hand. It does indeed feel faster and more stable than the N950 developer hardware, and the software keyboard is way easier to type on. Accidental edge-swipes are less likely now with the curved glass screen, so the entire UI metaphor works wonderfully. In short, it takes your breath away.

As a concept car, Nokia are only doing a limited run of N9s - 100,000 or so. Their MeeGo Harmattan OS is receding back behind the curtains, hopefully to return in another concept device in the future, whatever that may be. It sounds like Nokia is going to cannibalize Harmattan and bring a lot of this UI and design sense back to their non-smartphones with a new Linux-based OS called Meltemi. Indeed, the winds of change are blowing in the right direction. The N9 hardware design is being improved upon and re-used in Nokia's first Windows Phone device, the Lumia 800. I really believe Windows Phone was the right choice for Nokia (and that's why every app in our portfolio is either already ported to WP7, or soon will be).

For now, MeeGo may be dead. Harmattan may never see the light of day again either. But I get to drive a concept car. For that, thank you, Nokia.

Take One for iPad

2011-09-28T02:24:00.005+01:00

I'm a little late to the party, but High Caffeine Content is proud to announce the availability of Take One for iPad! Ok, we launched two weeks ago, but I've been so busy I forgot to post about it sooner.

Take One is a movie slate for the iPad that's perfect for the amateur videographer or budding filmmaker. It's super simple to use, with one-tap changing of scene, roll, take, a night mode, a color check screen, and easy navigation through your slates - you can thumb through them or just pick them from a list.

We built the app in conjunction with Cosmic Cloud Software who did all the art and design work. It's been a great project to work on and we can't wait to bring it to a broader audience soon (*cough*iPhone*cough*).

Take One is a multilingual release from the start; we've taken care to provide great support for French, Spanish, German and Japanese; you should be able to grab it from the App Store for $2.99.

Just to keep you informed - we are tracking two bugs currently (1.0, guys!): one is an audio clap sync bug on the original iPad, and the other is an odd bug with muted audio. If clapping the board isn't making a sound, try changing the Ringer/Alerts volume in the Settings app on your iPad. Rest assured that both will be fixed asap!

Lights Off Android/MeeGo - High Caffeine Content State of the Union

2011-09-10T17:17:00.005+01:00

Lights Off has made the jump to two new platforms in the past month: Android and MeeGo Harmattan.

The Android version of Lights Off was teased no less than three years ago on this very blog. I had originally started porting work when Android 1.0 was new, before I first got my ADP1. Three years, nine OS releases and eight (!) Android device purchases later, we've finally launched!

More recently, Lights Off has become the first of our apps to launch on the Ovi store, for MeeGo devices (i.e. the N9). Built with Qt and QML, I really enjoyed working on this version and think it's one of our best yet. I'm really expecting to see iOS-quality apps for MeeGo, as it has a really sweet set of tools and (native!!) frameworks, and pipes everything through the GPU for amazing performance. From this MeeGo version of the app, I spent a Sunday morning porting it to Symbian; took only a few hours to do and virtually no code had to be changed: great success! Nokia says all their future Symbian and S40 devices will be 'Qt devices' instead, and if they can pull that off I expect to see great things from the final years of S60/S40 before it's entirely replaced by WP7 across the entire product portfolio.

This year has very much been a cross platform push for High Caffeine Content, a consolidation of sorts. We've launched our apps on Mac OS X, Android, Windows Phone, BlackBerry (PlayBook), MeeGo and, soon, Symbian. We also launched Grace v2.0, a major upgrade to our app that gives a voice to autistic children. That's no less than 10 apps in nine months! Not only that, but we have some more great iOS apps in the pipeline that you will see very soon. It's clear that the scope of our projects is expanding (you should see some of our prototypes in the lab!), and I really can't wait to show you more.

Nokia N9 - Meet MeeGo Harmattan

2011-08-11T09:24:00.007+01:00

The smartphone market is crowded (or, 'healthy', you could say); we have iOS and Android in the top spots, and a range of competitors like Windows Phone 7, Symbian, BlackBerry 7, webOS, Bada, etc. iOS, Android, WP7 are on the ascendency, most other things are static or in decline.

What you often find though, is that you can tell the good ones apart by how consistent and pleasant to use they are. Pick up a webOS device, for example, and you instantly see a pretty OS with many great UI concepts. Use it for a little longer, and you start to see how shallow that veneer actually is - user experience nightmares, terrible performance, half-finished designs, etc. The sliding three-pane UI in webOS 3.x is a great example of this; drag the divider and the panes will judder across the screen, the main pane not resizing anything until you let go, at which point it snaps to the new position with no animation or feeling. Compare with the Twitter for iPad UI and how fluid it feels, and you would be appalled. It's such a pity, because webOS is a great concept and implementation - it just doesn't have the final 10% to make it feel like you're using something more than a pretty-looking webpage. I believe it's here to stay, however, unlike Symbian, BlackBerry OS, etc.

iOS is the king, so far, with consistency of user experience. You'd have to make a conscious choice as a developer to create an app that breaks the inherent UX niceties and animation in the OS. I like to call this the 'soul' of the platform. Android, on the flipside, is a hodgepodge of inconsistent UX, where even Google's own apps decide to feature new styles and concepts in between OS releases (the App Marketplace, for example, has been redesigned twice in recent history, with neither style matching the rest of the OS). Windows Phone 7 also has a quality UX, until you reach the third party apps, where everything degenerates (the third-party apps, being Silverlight, have no relation to the native software that comes on the phone, which is all C++ and using the same frameworks).

Recently, Nokia announced the N9, the first (and perhaps last) of their MeeGo smartphones. Where does MeeGo fit?

N9

Long awaited, the expectations were really high for this device - MeeGo was originally supposed to be the savior of Nokia, their modern smartphone OS to replace the aging Symbian. When Nokia announced in February that they were instead going to move to Windows Phone 7 as their primary platform, most took it as a sign that MeeGo was simply never going to be ready, or competitive. The open-source version of MeeGo for handsets is so barebones that it would take another year at the least to build a compelling user experience on top of it, so it was understandable that Nokia would focus their efforts on WP7 instead.

Then we saw the N9.

The N9 is an absolutely stunning device - sleek, minimal, with a curved glass front and no visible buttons. What was more shocking, however, was the software. Nokia's MeeGo 'Harmattan', powering the new flagship, was not only good, it was as stunning as the hardware.

This is Nokia's iPhone; the attention to detail and design ethos is really befitting a modern smartphone platform. The OS feels alive, with UI elements swooping gracefully under your finger, alerts and dialogues popping onscreen with a bounce. The software and hardware feels like it was designed from the ground up together as a seamless whole. Multitasking is performed by swiping a finger from any side across the curved glass screen; notifications from all your services (Facebook, Twitter, mail, etc) have a dedicated section on your homescreen. The design language and iconography is a breath of fresh air. Performance-wise the device screams, as everything is running as native code and the GPU controls everything onscreen (a la Core Animation on iOS).

The N950, running MeeGo Harmattan, beside the E7, running Symbian. OCD bonus: you can order your icons by color to really make your device stand out.

HACKABLE

MeeGo Harmattan is a full GNU/Linux stack, and seems to hold its developer roots close to it; right in the Settings app is a toggle switch to turn on 'Developer Mode', effectively giving you root access and an SSH shell. The N900 (the precursor to the MeeGo initiative) was renowed for its hackability in much the same way. It's very likely that the N9 will be able to dual-boot Android like the N900 before it, so I have a feeling that this device will be extremely popular in the techie community. MeeGo Harmattan puts Android to shame, design-wise, whilst retaining the über-hackability that developers and geeks adore.

MEEGO UX

Having used the developer version of the N9 hardware, the N950, for a few weeks now, I can safely say that MeeGo Harmattan is right up there beside iOS in the user experience department. Everything is consistently good, even the third party apps. This design really has been thought through even to the smallest details. The development frameworks allow you to create really great apps, consistent with the rest of the OS (even inheriting the subleties of animation and timing and interaction, similar to iOS). Even on last year's hardware everything is smooth and pleasant to use. MeeGo Harmattan, unlike so many other OSes, is not shallow; the user experience goes all the way to the core. It has soul. It absolutely deserves to stay on the market in some form, even if WP7 becomes Nokia's primary smartphone platform.

Nokia's MeeGo Harmattan on the left, open source MeeGo on the right…

WRAP UP

The N9 is a glimpse of what could have been; it doesn't sound like Nokia has any plans to continue making MeeGo smartphones. I fully agree that they should be laser-focused on Windows Phone, but it makes me sad to think that such an awesome device and OS have no future (beyond being the poster child for Qt mobile development as Qt expands to Nokia's dumbphone platforms).

The N9 and MeeGo were too risky a bet for Nokia's future smartphone platform; CEO Stephen Elop describes the WP7 move as 'removing the handcuffs' for the MeeGo team - the fate of Nokia was no longer on their shoulders, so they could pull out all the stops to make an amazing OS to truly show that Nokia's still got it. What becomes of that OS now, we don't know. Nokia calls it their plan for 'future disruptions', which could very well mean using it for a tablet (Elop stated that Nokia very much has to be in the tablet space at an AllThingsD conference recently), or keeping it on the backburner as a 'just in case' scenario. Does the general populace need another smartphone platform? No, I don't think so. But I absolutely think that we, the tech fringe, are better-off with this one in it.

DISCLAIMER

The N950 license agreement, as it's prerelease hardware, specifically states that I cannot say anything negative about it. Fortunately, I honestly don't have to take that into account as I have absolutely nothing negative to say. It's that good.

Lights Off for Windows Phone & BlackBerry PlayBook

2011-05-08T05:55:00.004+01:00

This week Lights Off launched on Windows Phone 7, following up the BlackBerry PlayBook release the previous week.

I'm really happy with how the Windows Phone version turned out in particular, and fans of the game from iOS will be happy to see that all the features they know and love made it intact. Developing for WP7 is quite refreshing, and even though it had its fair share of head-desk moments it's nice to see that the graphics/animation engine is just as powerful as Core Animation (unlike some other OSes that shall remain nameless…).

The PlayBook porting process, on the other hand, wasn't as terrible as I thought it would be. Not being a Flash fan, after developing Lights Off from the ground up in ActionScript I can see why Flash developers love Flash. On the PlayBook, too, Flash/AIR apps are, for all intents and purposes, native apps, so you don't have a horrible non-standard user experience when running Flash apps. Like Silverlight in Windows Phone development, Flash is also fully capable of all the things that CoreAnimation does, and the entire process was actually really enjoyable. I may make more PlayBook apps…

RIM sent out a free PlayBook unit in return, so expect a longer post on the device and OS itself. Short version: I actually like it, flaws and all. No it doesn't compete with the iPad. A 10" model might.

Grab Lights Off for Windows Phone from the Marketplace, and/or the PlayBook version if so inclined.

Chameleon: UIKit for Mac OS X

2011-03-22T17:34:00.006Z

Sean Heber over at the Iconfactory has just published a really awesome project called Chameleon; it's basically an open source re-implementation of UIKit for Mac OS X. With this, you can port apps from iOS to the Mac really easily using all the CoreAnimation-powered UIKit classes you know and love. You can even create a hybrid UIKit and AppKit application that integrates the best bits out of both the Mac and iOS development environment. Twitterrific 4 for Mac uses this framework to share its codebase across the Mac and iOS.

I was lucky enough to get an early chance to port an app to Mac OS X using this, and it blew me away. In fact, I was able to get several apps up and running with very little effort. All the localization work you've done works perfectly too.

SameGame for Mac uses Chameleon, and was ported in a couple hours - a perfect example of how easy to use Chameleon is. It should (approval pending) be on the App Store soon.

Nokia Developer Gift, Pt. 1

2011-03-18T15:00:00.002Z

A few weeks back, after Nokia had announced they were upending their software strategy for a partnership with Microsoft, they promised us developers a few things; the two key items were one free Nokia E7 and one free Nokia Windows Phone (when they become available).

Today arrived on my doorstep the aforementioned E7, and I thought it would be proper if I wrote something about it here.

First impressions are always important, and the moment I set eyes on this thing I was stunned. The hardware design is absolutely beautiful; a large 4" AMOLED display and aluminum frame hiding a svelte keyboard. The slider tilt-hinge mechanism is so very solid and appealing, and the device is surprisingly thin for a slider. I couldn't help but think how this phone would be a chart-topper if it was running WP7 or Android.

Sadly, it's running Symbian. It must be said, the latest version of Symbian, Symbian^3, is extremely nice. Unlike its predecessors (anyone who had the misfortune to use a 5800 or N97, I feel for you), it's actually designed for a capacitive multitouch touchscreen. Using it reminded me of all the things I loved about Symbian, back before the iPhone changed the world. While Symbian^3 may be great (it's much easier to use than BBOS6 on the Torch, for example), it's nowhere near the class of modern mobile OSes (iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Phone 7). Fortunately, this time next year we won't have to have this conversation anymore.

The camera quality on the E7 is a far cry from the Nokia N8 imaging flagship; there's no half-press to focus on the camera button, and the photos feel more like a camera phone than the N8 (which is on par with a point and shoot camera). Of course, it has a front facing camera for 3G video calls, like nearly every Symbian phone since 2005. It eschews the microSD slot, so you have to rely on the internal storage, and has a dedicated SIM tray like the iPhone.

All in all, this is a very nice gift from Nokia to its developers. The message is twofold; it shows developers that Nokia still cares about Symbian, and wants them to continue development for it, but most of all, it reminds developers that Nokia can make stunning hardware. It makes me giddy thinking about the next step in this giveaway, when Nokia distributes its first Windows Phone 7 devices to all its developers. As much as we in the tech world write off Nokia for using an outdated and limiting OS like Symbian, it's easy to forget that they are still the #1 phone manufacturer in the world. Their hardware is superb, and WP7 is a fantastic OS (though I wish Microsoft would get their updates out within three months of missed release dates... Seriously :-p), and I can't wait until the two come together. Some very exciting times are ahead.

Speed for Windows Phone now available

2011-02-23T09:41:00.007Z

Speed for Windows Phone 7 is now available worldwide on the Windows Phone Marketplace. It features all the same features you know and love from the iOS version, including the HUD mode.

This marks the first major step of my cross platform push, with Speed now available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Grab it now from the WP7 Marketplace or scan the tag (if you're on device) or Zune (if you're on a Windows machine).

Happy driving!

Consistently Bad

2011-02-14T10:01:00.002Z

So the end result? Consistency – Yes. But consistently bad.

Dermot Daly on cross platform toolkits for mobile app development.

Nokia + WP7

2011-02-11T04:50:00.005Z

Today, Nokia announced an Earth-shattering change of course; no longer will they try and play in the smartphone software game, instead they will be licensing Windows Phone 7 from Microsoft.

Nokia has been in dire straits since the iPhone was announced in 2007. They were so blown away by it that they reasoned that it couldn't possibly be real, instead believing it to be a smoke and mirrors play from Apple. When the iPhone launched, and proved to be genuine, they panicked. It wasn't until 2010 that Nokia launched a capacitive touch smartphone to compete, the N8, and though the hardware is top-notch quality the software is still generations behind iOS (and since then, Android, webOS and WP7 have sprung up, all new-generation platforms for the future-computing space).

Symbian^3, the OS shipping on the N8, is the best version of Symbian yet; little-known fact: before the iPhone, I was a Symbian fanboy. I rocked a 7650, N-Gage, N-Gage QD, and a 6630 during the 2000s. There was no other mobile OS as advanced; Symbian was a fully multitasking OS with OpenGL|ES support (the N-Gage and above ran ports of popular PlayStation games like Tomb Raider and Tony Hawks) and a large software library. Then the iPhone happened. iPhone ran OS X, a desktop-class Operating System. There was no way Symbian could ever have caught up to this; it was obvious even then to seemingly everyone outside of Nokia. Nokia may have ignored the iPhone, a $600 device with no 3rd party apps, but they should have been terrified by Android, which sprung up shortly after the iPhone was introduced, to which Symbian lost all but one of its licensees.

Nokia worked on a 'hobby' OS on the side, Maemo. Originally built for Nokia's 'internet tablet' line, the only 'phone' Maemo ever made it onto was the N900 (in late 2009), a device created for developers featuring top-end specs and a shell enabled right out of the box. Maemo was a real, desktop-class Linux OS, first created in 2005, and was clearly what Nokia should have been focusing on to replace Symbian. It wasn't until early 2010 however that they realized this, and partnered with Intel to create the MeeGo project - a fully open-source Linux-based post-PC (smartphone, tablet, TV, in-vehicle) platform for ARM and x86, the spiritual successor to Maemo.

Fast forward a year, and MeeGo is not ready. It's absolutely filled with potential, but it's still a good six months away from being shippable to consumers (less, perhaps, to developers). Realistically, the handset version runs on a single device (the N900) right now, with 2009 specs and a resistive touchscreen. Nokia's choice, up to now, has been to hold out for MeeGo to replace Symbian, and continue to push Symbian until that time comes (in all probability, it would mean another whole year to wait for a credible iPhone alternative from Nokia). Nokia's newly-appointed CEO, Stephen Elop, thinks that's insane, and he's right.

Microsoft offers them a way out.

Windows Phone 7 will give Nokia a credible, modern OS, significantly increasing their chances in the US, and furthermore bolstering the WP7 story by adding the top phone manufacturer in the world to the licensees. Nokia sells a *lot* of phones; this will be a major coup for Microsoft and a shot in the arm for WP7 visibility. Nokia can continue to innovate on hardware (something they are terrific at, their key strength) without having rely on a second rate OS like Symbian (or having to wait until MeeGo is ready).

I'm positively excited to see WP7 as part of Nokia's lineup. I've been using WP7 for months and adore the OS. I'd really like to see them bring WP7 to markets other than the US too, possibly replace Symbian across the board with it. MeeGo, being a Linux-based OS, will always be able to pull in the more technical people to the top end of the smartphone scale, and WP7 will be able to scale down to the not-so-smart-phones too as Microsoft add the lower-tier platform spec they've been promising for WP7 since MIX10 (320x480 screen resolutions, slower processors, etc). Nokia's hardware is top-notch, with impressive build quality. The N8 is an aluminium and glass beauty with an AMOLED screen, 12MPix camera and HDMI out; I can't imagine what they can pull together now they're not encumbered by their software. I can't wait for the day I'll be able to proudly call myself a Nokia fanboy again.

Introducing Speed for Android

2011-02-02T12:58:00.005Z

Introducing our first release of 2011: the long-awaited Android version of Speed, the successful GPS speedometer app.

Speed is a drop-dead simple speedometer for Android that uses the location data from the GPS to provide a near-accurate representation of how fast you're actually traveling.

Featuring lush graphics and a clear, legible display, Speed is the perfect bicycle, boat or train speedometer. Both kilometers and miles per hour are supported, and a landscape mode for widescreen operation. Simply tap the dial to switch between miles, kilometers and knots.

Speed has been tested on various screen sizes, and should look great on larger devices like the Dell Streak or Galaxy Tab too.

Grab it for under a dollar from the Android Market!

What can I do with it?

2011-01-14T15:52:00.001Z

"But more revealing was the scene after the party. Well after the other guests had gone, Jobs stayed to tutor the boy on the fine points of using the Mac. Later, I asked him why he had seemed happier with the boy than with the two famous artists. His answer seemed unrehearsed to me: 'Older people sit down and ask, "What is it?" but the boy asks, "What can I do with it?"'"

PlayBoy's 1985 interview with Steve Jobs.

Nexus S + MeeGo | Update: Ubuntu too!

2011-01-09T19:57:00.008Z

So, looks like the Nexus S can run MeeGo too :o) have a custom kernel going and booted the OS from a rootfs image on the internal memory (didn't have to flash!), but as you can see the display output is fscked (maybe due to the AMOLED?) and the touchscreen isn't working either.

But… I think this is the first non-Android OS running on the Nexus S so far, so thought it was worth a post! Watch this space…

Update: Try it yourself - PROS ONLY

So if you're insane enough, you can try it yourself right now…

You will need to build a MeeGo rootfs first, in ext2 format. Use my kickstart as a base, it has a few niceties like adb support (i.e. the only way you can interact with it right now). With your image successfully compiled, copy it to linux/rootfs.ext2 on your Nexus S' internal memory (completely safe, no flashing required).

My boot.img is here - you will need to use fastboot to boot it (fastboot boot nexuss-meego-boot.img), or you can flash it to recovery if you want to dual boot.

As seen in the photo, you won't really be able to see anything onscreen, but you can use adb to get a root shell like on any Android device. Poke around, play with it, improve upon it, etc. Actually going much further than this is beyond me unless I can find some talented kernel hackers with Nexus S hardware to test on.

Go nuts!

Matching XDA-developers thread here.

UPDATE 2: Have modified the kernel to force full brightness on the screen. It's tinted very yellow, so it's not perfect, but you can see better now!

UPDATE 3 - UBUNTU:

Well, this is more of a side note, but Ubuntu runs fine on the Nexus S using the same process. Check the XDA thread for more info.

MeeGo 1.1 running on HTC's HD2

2010-12-31T07:48:00.010Z

While bored today, I decided to take a look at getting MeeGo running on the HTC HD2.

The HD2 is very similar to the Nexus One hardware-wise, and MeeGo is already known to run on that, but as far as I know, nobody had ever got it running on the HD2. I set to work, and a few hours later we were up and running!

I followed the instructions at MeeGo's MSMQSD wiki page as I'd done previously for the Nexus One. I didn't deviate much from the instructions at all, except for having the kickstart file produce an ext2 image.

Using the latest kernel from Ubuntu for HD2, and a slightly modified initrd.gz from the same package, I combined these with the MeeGo rootfs image, and with a little tweaking I got as far as the homescreen.

I cannot get the touchscreen working for whatever reason (I'm a n00b, go easy on me), but I did install Android's adb daemon so I can get a shell over USB (which is how I ran the apps in the screenshots below).

Plenty of things aren't working, the touchscreen being the most egregious, like WiFi, graphics acceleration, etc. But it's a start. Anyway, MeeGo is finally running on the HD2, so I thought I should share the story :-)

The HD2 seems unique in its hacking potential, as it can run Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Phone 7, Android, Ubuntu and now MeeGo - if you ever get a chance to pick up one of these devices, do!

Update:

I have the touchscreen working mostly now, using a different kernel. I'll update this post when I have real info.

Update 2:

Touchscreen and WiFi are now both functioning, but neither are working properly (touchscreen registers clicks as drags, and wifi won't assign an IP address to the interface after connecting). Working on it…

Update 3 - VIDEO!:

Mount iPod nano 6G Resource Partition

2010-12-30T02:00:00.007Z

When you run extract2g (-4 -A) against the iPod firmware.MSE file, you end up with nine partitions. Eight of those are encrypted, so not much use right now (asides disk.fw and osos.fw, which you can force-boot using iRecovery). The ninth partition is the resource partition, which is not encrypted, so you're able to extract the contents (a FAT16 disk image, no less).

Use the following command to strip the header and extract the file:

dd if=rsrc.fw of=rsrc.img iseek=2 count=284672

(If you're not working from the 1.0/36A00403 firmware bundle, you can strip the first 1024 bytes from the rsrc.fw file, and run fdisk on it to find the sector count - 'fdisk -e rsrc.fw'. For the 1.0 bundle, the sector count is 284672).

Double-click the resulting .img file on Mac OS X to have it mount so you can browse it. There's not a lot of interesting stuff there (fonts, etc), but there are two files of interest: SilverDB and SilverImagesDB. SilverImagesDB contains all the image resources for the OS; wallpapers, icons, buttons, etc, including some curious leftover pieces like camera shutter images.

'Silver' I presume is the name or codename of the UI framework on the iPod's Pixo OS (similar to how 'Purple' was used to describe iPhone apps).

Maybe once we find a way to flash a modified rsrc partition back to the iPod (remember, it's not encrypted) then you should, in theory, be able to modify wallpapers and other images/resources.

iPod nano 6G iRecovery

2010-12-29T04:43:00.006Z

After musing with James Whelton about his iPod nano homescreen hack (http://nanohack.me/), I set out to see if there was anything interesting you could do to the iPod.

Discovered what may be DFU mode: hold down the restart buttons until you get a black screen (it reboots twice) and iTunes sees the device and alerts you.

Afterwards, modified iRecovery to work with the iPod nano (had to add its DFU/Recovery USB ID) and allow it send files, and tested with some files I had extracted from the iPod nano 6G firmware (using the extract2g tool somewhere from http://www.freemyipod.org/ ).

disk.fw and osos.fw work (one boots disk mode, the other boots to a homescreen). The other files make the nano boot to a white screen, but go no further.

So, basically, it seems we can send encrypted firmware files to the iPod, and have them execute, similar to what is used to jailbreak the iPhone. If the nano rejects the file (i.e. unsigned, invalid), it reboots.

While this by itself isn't that cool, hopefully the info will inspire someone else to finally hack this thing and give us custom 'apps'.

Make sure to click '720p' to see what's going on.

Carriers vs Walled Gardens, WP7 Edition

2010-12-25T18:24:00.006Z

Finding the whole 'carriers and manufacturers can have their own app store section' situation on Windows Phone 7 quite interesting.

Basically, the carriers and manufacturers of the devices can offer their own exclusive free/paid apps to their customers only, and have a dedicated category in the Marketplace for such. Furthermore they get access to the native SDK so can do things way beyond what apps built with the public WP7 SDK can do (i.e. DLNA streaming, augmented reality, hardware access, etc).

For example, LG offers an application on the Marketplace (that only their phones will see) that allows you change APN/carrier settings to match any market in which LG has a device; something you can't do with the standard APN settings on Windows Phone 7. There are definitely some other very cool free apps from LG;

You can also re-download any of the bundled apps (that you may have deleted when buying the phone).

It's a fascinating solution to the carriers-have-no-power situation on iOS, and carriers-have-too-much-power on Android. I think it's the perfect compromise.

Windows Phone 7

2010-11-28T16:54:00.007Z

In late 2009 a rumor floated that Microsoft were going to start from scratch with their Windows Mobile OS. At the time, I thought about how cool it could be, but it didn't sound like something Microsoft would ever do.

Well they did it; in about 18 months they started from scratch and created something wholly original and non-derivative of the iPhone, and it's even cooler than I had ever imagined.

Windows Phone 7 is a fresh start, designed around all the principles that Apple has made essential to the modern smartphone market. High-spec hardware, thoughtful and powerful design, multitouch ingrained into the core of the OS, smooth visual performance and animation, a singular app store model and comprehensive developer support. The UI concept is surprisingly (for Microsoft) thoroughly thought out, with minimal chrome - making the content center-stage. The design language, Metro, used throughout the OS is very modern and beautiful, albeit certainly not for everyone.

Windows Phone 7 'just works' in a way I've never seen a Microsoft product do; add your Google and Facebook accounts to the device, and suddenly your contacts are enriched by data from both services, including pictures, status messages, addresses, contact details and more. No setup required, it's all built-in. Your Facebook timeline is displayed in the Contacts app, allowing you to check up on what your contacts are doing. The entire experience is very pleasant. Similarly, the Photos app will show your albums from Facebook and Windows Live too, as well as a Facebook timeline of photo postings from your contacts, of course allowing you to comment on them. Photos taken with the onboard camera will also automatically upload to your Facebook or Windows Live accounts if you so opt.

While the first-party, native apps on the OS are really great, third-party apps are a bit of a mixed bag. They are created using Silverlight, and themed to match the rest of the OS. As such, while they make a good attempt at it, you can still tell that they're not native apps. Controls work in different ways, keyboard input is slightly sluggish, and performance isn't consistent. Naturally, since this is the first ever version of Silverlight on a smartphone, there's a lot of performance that can be added and issues fixed with software updates in time. The most egregious problem however is multitasking, or the lack thereof. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if third-party apps launched instantly, and didn't quit if you locked the screen, but right now both problems are very obvious - apps can take three or more seconds to launch at their fastest. I have no doubt that Microsoft will enable multitasking along with copy & paste in the next year, but right now it's a frustrating experience. The worst part for me is when you lock the screen while running a third party app: when you unlock the phone, the app will start resuming - if you hit the home button before the app finishes, the app will continue launching in the background and the phone will switch back into the app after it's done (even though you explicitly told the OS to go back to the homescreen). Nonetheless, I have been consistently surprised with the quality of third-party apps on Windows Phone 7, all things considered. Furthermore, even the most badly written app still inherits the charming Metro style and fits in very well with the OS.

I have been using an LG Optimus 7 as my main phone for a few days now, and months ago I spent a few weeks with a prototype LG WP7 device as my primary phone. I would be remiss if I didn't say I adore it; the Optimus 7 is very sleek and feels like a premium device, and Windows Phone 7 itself makes me smile every time I use it, as the Zune HD did (it being the first touchscreen device with an earlier version of the Metro design). The seamless service integration really makes the OS pleasant to use, and, since the iPad is my primary Internet device, I am not missing the iPhone one bit.

Microsoft set out to create a new phone platform that was as good as the iPhone, yet offered a rich choice of devices and form factors so that users can choose the one they want. There are clearly rough edges, but nothing that cannot and will not be fixed in due time with software updates. Microsoft really have bet the house on the idea of a consumer smartphone; this isn't going to appeal to the kind of people who choose Android, but it will appeal to the vast amount of people who don't yet own a smartphone. It may even appeal to many iPhone users (as I said, I adore the OS, no less). For a company whom everyone had expected to fade into irrelevance in the smartphone business, Microsoft has pulled a remarkable 180°. I can't wait to see where this ideology leads them; maybe one day they'll rewrite Windows from scratch too ;-)

Retina Updates

2010-11-18T21:21:00.008Z

Just to keep you informed, Speed and Lights Off are now fully Retina Display ready, joining the previously-updated SameGame.

Aside from that, they have much better support for iOS 4's multitasking, and Speed takes advantage of new features in iOS 4 to be more accurate than ever.

All are free updates, so go get them now!

MeeGo

2010-11-18T05:16:00.005Z

Until a week ago, I knew virtually nothing about MeeGo. I had known it was an attempt by Nokia and Intel at creating a new OS for Nokia's smartphone line, and that was about it.

This week I attended MeeGoConf on a whim, as it was being hosted in Dublin so I wouldn't have to go out of my way to attend. As a direct result, I have been bitten by the MeeGo bug; there is so much potential here that I never would have expected given its heritage.

MeeGo is less about Nokia trying to be relevant, and more about the open source community creating the future Linux OS for embedded devices (smartphones, tablets, netbooks, in-vehicle entertainment and television). It's a full Linux distribution, a MeeGo 'Core'. For each device platform, there's a corresponding 'UX' (User eXperience); if you install the netbook version of MeeGo you're seeing the 'Netbook UX'. Evolved from Moblin, the Netbook UX is the most far-along and usable of the UXes.

Intel went out of their way at this conference to prove MeeGo to the attendees; what better way to convince someone something is worthwhile than to provide them with it for free and let them just use it themselves? Intel did just that, giving each of the ~700 third-party attendees a free Lenovo IdeaPad tablet netbook running MeeGo (to satisfy the nerdy body of attendees, everyone had to install the OS themselves from provided USB keys; the choice at collection was 'Broadcom' WiFi driver or 'open source' one :o) ).

MeeGo's Netbook UX is really well suited to touchscreen devices, and I was blown away by how smooth and responsive input was (stark contrast to Windows 7 on a touchscreen). I knew this was just the tip of the iceberg however, and I wanted to get the Handset (smartphone) UX up on running on my new tablet. A bit of massaging later (I lie, a *lot* of massaging - I now have the entire filesystem memorized) and I had my IdeaPad set up so I can switch between Netbook and Handset UX at a whim.

I went on a hacking spree after that, forcibly installing MeeGo on both my N900 and Nexus One. Right now, the Handset UX isn't usable for anything. It's just a pre-alpha glimpse of something with great potential. My N900 had previously convinced me that maybe Nokia wasn't going to wither into irrelevance after all (the OS, Maemo, that preceded MeeGo is very slick, and a stark contrast to Symbian S60), but now I'm downright excited to get my hands on a real MeeGo device, like the forthcoming N9.

MeeGo looks like it has legs, and is a distinct, user-friendly OS. But, influenced by the N900 that came before it, MeeGo is also a hacker's dream. A fully open-source OS that has a full Fedora-based Linux distribution under the hood and can potentially run desktop apps without issue (MeeGo's Netbook UX is a better Chrome OS than Chrome OS itself!). There's definitely another 6-8 months work before consumers can be entrusted with it, but from listening to the sessions all week it's clear that the people in charge are on the right track and know what they need to do to match the competition in the user experience space. I only hope that, like the N900, MeeGo handsets retain the Terminal app on the homescreen and the built-in SSH server. :-)

Return AirPrint sharing to Mac OS X v10.6.5

2010-11-11T02:14:00.004Z

Today, Apple released Mac OS X v10.6.5 which was supposed to bring AirPrint to any printer connected to your Mac. Only problem is, a last minute issue (due to patent trolling?) has caused them to pull support for AirPrint in OS X.

Don't panic! You can return it, but you're going to have to pull some files from a prerelease version of 10.6.5.

The files you need are:

/usr/libexec/cups/filter/urftopdf

/usr/share/cups/mime/apple.convs

/usr/share/cups/mime/apple.types

If you migrate those from a 10.6.5 prerelease build (there seem to be many floating around torrent sites and file sharing sites - build 10H542 works; naturally I can't link you to the files themselves, sorry!) to your machine you're just one step away from having AirPrint working.

The final key thing is you have to remove and re-add your printer in the Print & Fax preferences pane. Once you do that (and share your printer in the Sharing preferences pane) it should show up on any iOS devices that support AirPrint.

Nerdy extra info: Basically, doing this should add the image/urf mimetype to your shared printer, and a new Bonjour field 'URF'. Once you have those, it should work. Theoretically, there's no reason someone can't write a server application that broadcasts said Bonjour info and prints for you, so you don't have to use files from a prerelease build. I would expect something like that to appear over the next few weeks.

Thanks to Patrick McCarron for helping me debug this method

Good luck!

Mac OS X 10.7 Brain Dump

2010-10-23T02:21:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday, Apple revealed their plans for Mac OS X 'Lion', which will bring a lot of ideas and research from iOS to the desktop.

LaunchPad

A lot has been made of Apple's new 'Launchpad' feature; basically a re-imagining of the iOS home screen for the desktop. It makes a lot of sense, application discovery, installation and removal has always been problematic on Mac OS X. But it also signifies something far more interesting for the platform - the idea is to create an abstraction between your 'Applications' and the /Applications folder on your hard disk. Maybe in an OS release or two, you won't even have an Applications folder on disk anymore - all your application access and management will happen through Launchpad.

This signifies, at least to me, a move away from the files and folders model of interaction with computers. As with iOS, the location the applications are stored in becomes an implementation detail. In the very near future, we may not even need a Finder app to browse our hard disk; folders just become metadata, and everything lives in a global 'soup' (Apple Newton users will be familiar with this idea).

Never Quits

According to rumors I've heard, and evidenced in the demo of Lion given, apps in 10.7 also do not seem to differentiate between 'running' and 'onscreen'; there is no indicator in the Dock when they're open, and when you quit them and reopen them they re-launch in exactly the same state you left them. You effectively do not know what's running or not without a window onscreen. It sounds like an insane change, but actually isn't if you think about it: in the near future, there may not be a speed difference between something being 'in-RAM' or on-disk, if the two storage media are equivalent in speed (SSDs, while still a long way off, are getting there). If disk access is as fast as RAM access, what *is* the difference between 'quit' and 'offscreen'? There effectively is no difference. It may be a bit premature for 2011, and perhaps this decision will be reversed by the time Lion is released, but it's an interesting view of the future.

App Store

Apple also announced plans for an App Store on Mac OS X, something I've seen coming as a logical conclusion ever since it came to the iPhone. Feelings are mixed about this, but it doesn't matter - in the next few months the App Store is going to become the dominant distributor of Mac applications and developers will be scrambling to retrofit their software to abide by the store's rules. Whether the walled garden is good or evil, there's no doubt that it will change the desktop computing landscape just as it did in mobile.

Right now, you can't use the same application ID for your iOS app and your Mac App Store app. I think it's conceivable that in the future there will be no difference between a Mac and iOS app binary, so I can understand why they don't allow you reuse the same ID across both platforms.

Speaking of App Stores, I find it curious that neither Dashboard Widgets nor Safari Extensions have received an App Store of their own yet; I can definitely see both getting their own integrated stores eventually, as it just makes too much logical sense. I'm totally against putting either in the Mac App Store, however; that would defeat the purpose of a single-purpose, streamlined store.

Still no mention of iBooks on the desktop either - I've always imagined that Preview would gain such capabilities, but it's also possible that a standalone 'iBooks' app for Mac is coming.

Multitouch

Apple devoted quite a lot of stage time to talking about multitouch on the desktop, and saying how their solution is their powerful multitouch trackpad. They reason that touch screens don't want to be vertical, and they're fully right. Unlike many in the media, however, I certainly do not interpret this as Apple saying they won't implement multitouch screens on the Mac line. On the contrary, they kept saying how *vertical* touch screens don't work. This leaves them wide open to introducing horizontal touchscreen Macs, and they have many patents on such ideas so have obviously been working on them. Don't be surprised if in a year or two Apple introduces real touch screens to the Mac.

Lion looks to have much better, integral multitouch gesture support, which is going to be awesome for pro users. Right now the mouse is generally a point and click affair, but with multitouch it turns into something far more like a practical version of the Minority Report UI; every flick, swipe, pinch, rotate has a function in the OS.

Contextual UI & Fullscreen

This is also a big one - of course, people have defended iOS' unitasking and fullscreen apps saying it allows them focus better on whatever they're working on on iOS. There's a lot of truth to that, and it will be interesting to see how much of a difference it will make on the desktop. I definitely feel more at-peace and relaxed when unitasking on the iPad (this blog post was written on the iPad, for reference).

The contextual UI is something that interests me a lot; quite apparent in the iLife demos, specifically iPhoto, is a lot of contextual UI. It appears when it's needed, just like on iOS. It doesn't clutter the screen when not needed, and it shows up near the object you're interacting with instead of in some global toolbar or sidebar. I believe this is going to be a big thing as Mac OS X assimilates more of the design philosophy of iOS. It's definitely going to be a big deal on smaller screens, like the 11.6" MacBook Air. Mac OS X is also losing the permanent scrollbar, replacing it with a contextual scrollbar (again, just like iOS).

Wrap Up

There's so much coming in Lion that they've shown already, way more than I expected. I was expecting Mac OS X and iOS to become far more similar, but not this soon! Even now, it's clear that Lion is going to change the Mac landscape vastly, and the App Store is going to have a huge effect on Microsoft's planning for Windows 8. The stringent rules on the App Store will be a pain in the ass for Mac developers, but it will end up accelerating the evolution of the Mac platform immensely (no private APIs, no external dependencies beyond what ships with the Mac OS, no writing outside of specific locations - it will allow Apple to make huge and rapid changes to Mac OS X without worrying about backwards compatibility).

For the first time in many years, I am actually excited about the future of desktop computers. The iPad hasn't killed the Mac, it's brought it to a whole new level.

AppleTV + Apps

2010-10-01T12:41:00.002+01:00

I guess it's no surprise that the new iOS-based AppleTV was jailbroken instantaneously on release, but as the former AppleTV plugin developers race to the new platform to disassemble it and get their own plugins up and running on the new system, I can't help but wonder how the future of AppleTV will play out as regards developers.

It's widely rumored that Apple will open up the AppleTV platform and create an 'App Store', allowing developers write apps for the big screen. It seems almost inevitable that they will make this play, if not to compete against Google TV then to at least make the AppleTV a relevant platform; leverage against the movie studios reluctant to agree to Apple's movie rental terms and who knows what else.

What I don't see is an AppleTV SDK being built around BackRow, the current framework that provides the UI on the device. Previous AppleTV plugins have all been built for BackRow, using a framework that is decidedly not very Cocoa-like or developer friendly. They have nonstandard design patterns, and they run as actual plugins to the UI process; a crashed plugin can currently take out the entire UI. From what I've seen (and I've been using it since the original AppleTV hacks back in 2007), the BackRow framework is not fit for third party developers and was never designed to be.

Assuming Apple does launch an App Store, then, how are we going to write apps? The only option I see is UIKit. UIKit is familiar to all iOS developers, is very Cocoa-like, and very powerful. In fact, since iOS 3.2, 1280x720 (720p, or the same resolution as AppleTV) is a supported resolution for developers, mainly for those creating TV-out UIs in iPad apps (Chopper 2 is a great example of this). Developers have already started crafting ten-foot-UI experiences in existing iOS apps, so it would be a no-brainer for that to translate over to AppleTV wholesale. To make it work, Apple would have to build remote control support into iOS… - but hold on a second, Apple already added that in iOS 4! Effectively, all the pieces are in place to build a remote-control driven 720p iOS app. All Apple needs to do is build the distribution mechanism and open the floodgates, and 'Universal' apps would be a definite possibility.

Of course, some people will complain that UIKit isn't the native UI for AppleTV; our apps will look and act differently from the native experience on the device. Point taken, and it's an important one; I think Apple could effectively build an AppleTV UI framework on top of UIKit that internally uses the BackRow APIs but offers the developer a much cleaner way to implement common features. Does it need to happen? No, but it would certainly feel unfinished if they didn't do it. Then again, Apple can be surprising: I'm still astounded they let the iPad ship with that horrific iPhone app scale-to-2x support :o).

Apple Financial Results Q3 2010

2010-07-20T22:50:00.002+01:00

Little infographic for you; executive summary - the iPad in its first quarter of sales accounts for almost twice as much revenue as all desktop Mac sales.

Puts the future in perspective, don't you think?

Taken from Apple's financial results PDF.

Retina Display Update

2010-06-27T13:54:00.004+01:00

By now, most developers have got their hands on iPhone 4 and run their old iPhone apps on it. And I'd like to think that they, like me, are appalled at how terrible they look on the new Retina Display. The screen is just so amazingly sharp and vibrant that your artwork will look like crap unless you get it redone.

Cue the sound of a hundred thousand developers' voices suddenly crying out in terror.

Why? Updating your artwork for the Retina Display is a time consuming and expensive process. iPhone artwork often costs thousands of dollars to produce in the first place, and if you have to go back to your artist to get it all redone (possibly from scratch, if they didn't think to design with vector shapes) then you're looking at a significant cost just to get your app to a passable visual state on the iPhone 4.

Those with in-house designers are at an advantage here, but for those of us who work alone it could well be a nightmare.

My plan is to have Retina-Display-ready app updates as soon as possible. I have already redone all the artwork for SameGame myself (and it looks stunning, to be honest), and Grace and Speed will follow with minor updates (in that order). Lights Off will require huge effort, so as of right now I'm not promising any release dates (just as with the Universal update, there's too much going into it to give a timeframe). Hopefully you'll start to see the others soon enough.

For those developers who haven't yet seen their app running on a Retina Display, start freaking out right about now. If you think you can get away with not redoing your art, you are sorely mistaken. :-)

PS: That Retina Display is like nothing I've ever seen. It changes the way you view computer screens forever. You can never unsee pixels on other displays again.

Labor of Love

2010-05-24T17:31:00.001+01:00

I have downloaded (and paid for) a lot of $2.00 programs that are just amazing. It’s not that you couldn’t make these on the PC, it’s just that people would scream that it should be free. And as a developer, I can tell you, I won’t spend time making stuff "for free" when I could be spending that time with my kids unless it’s a labor of love. As a result, a lot of cool little programs are being made because developers can actually get paid for making cool stuff.

Brad Wardell, CEO/founder of Stardock (a long-time Windows development house), on the iPad as a threat to Windows.

Thoughts on Flash on Froyo / iPhone Safari Plug-In SDK

2010-05-23T16:14:00.001+01:00

Some initial observations regarding my first twelve hours with the Flash 10.1 beta on the Nexus One:

Flash scrapes a pass in the performance test. Videos can be choppy at first, but after a little while they seem to play smoothly enough.

Flash utterly fails the UI test; forget any video playback controls on any Flash video you plan on watching. Tested it with the Engadget Show live last night and was unable to change the volume, also tested with some Zero Punctuation reviews and similar problem. It appears that Flash renders at the Nexus One's native resolution (480x800) which means the playback bar on virtually any Flash video is so tiny it's unusable. There's no automatic fullscreen mode when you double-tap a Flash context like some of the earlier demo videos mentioned, but the 'fullscreen' button on many Flash video players work fine (of course, Flash contexts that handle double-taps themselves to go fullscreen work fine).

Photograph here with SD card for comparison; you can't pinch-zoom in fullscreen mode, so how on earth are you ever expected to press any of the controls? This is worsened by the fact that Android phones' touch sensors aren't the most accurate either.

I can't give comments on battery life one way or another. The Nexus One's battery life is poor by default, but after watching a short Flash video or two I left the phone (in sleep mode) on my desk overnight; the battery was dead by the time I woke up.

Overall, for Flash to work on mobile devices virtually every Flash video site is going to have to redesign their Flash video player to support touchscreens. They may also have to re-encode all their videos for best performance (Flash keeps popping up 'This video is not optimized for mobile').

That being said, with the web as it is today, I don't see how Apple can ignore Flash for much longer unless there's significant movement to HTML5, which offers less features and generally performs worse than Flash, in the next year. To be honest, I don't see that happening; the pace of the web is glacial, at best, even when Apple is trying to force peoples' hands. It's really nice to be able to go to a website and not have to worry about whether it uses Flash or not; before this, I'd have to get a laptop out if a site demanded it. I don't think that's where Apple wants the iPhone or iPad to be, and I think the egos on both sides have done enough damage.

The Solution

I think Apple should put together a Safari Plug-in SDK for iPhone OS, and let developers decide. It's no more difficult to create a Safari plugin for iPhone than it is for the Mac, and Apple can sandbox them as much as they like, run them in a separate process and use IOSurface to draw them in a web view. Let the plug-ins access the same APIs that App Developers can, and let any developer submit them to the App Store. Why should Adobe get special privileges? Why can't Engadget, say, write an iPhone plugin that adds additional interactivity to their website when viewed on an iPhoneOS device? Should we wait for the web to catch up, or should we make something great using native code?

To prove a point, I have sample iPhone Safari plug-in source code available from my GitHub. You can test it in the Simulator, or you can test it on a jailbroken device. Make something amazing with it, and give Apple a reason to give us a plug-in SDK.

Update

I posted a video on Vimeo showing part of Lights Off running as an iPad Safari plug-in, just to give a concrete example:

'Open'

2010-05-21T17:24:00.001+01:00

If you're going to have a curated experience, isn't it better to at least have one where the curator is making their decisions primarily around the quality of your experience?

Jeff LaMarche on Android and openness. I fully agree.

The worst part of all this talk on 'open' is that the Android source code Google provides isn't the complete source code, and doesn't include any of the Google portions like Maps, Gmail, etc. To get those, you have to pay a lot of money to get an Android license from Google.

There's no less lock-in with Android than there is with iPhone, the only difference is you can install any app you want without paying extra. You still have to root your Android device (/jailbreak) to do anything interesting. Pay Apple's yearly $99 license, and you also get the ability to install any app you want without using the App Store (among many other benefits). You're trading one walled garden for another, except Google doesn't have any design or UX sense.

Very interested to see how Google's all-out assault on Apple this week will affect Apple's plans for 2010 and beyond. Google doesn't seem content without trying to oust Apple from every market they have (except the Mac). This is war.

Karma, Baby

2010-05-14T18:24:00.003+01:00

Although Google launched the Nexus One with grand plans to radically change the way consumers purchased phones and service, it looks like the experiment has fizzled to an end -- the company just announced that will eventually stop selling handsets online…

Google's flagship 'superphone' a complete flop, carriers rejecting it left right and centre, and now Google halting online sales. I love news days like these.

Via Engadget

Pixel Doubling

2010-05-10T17:44:00.001+01:00

Public Service Announcement for Developers writing iPhone apps that are not Universal; if you use UIImageView to draw your UI elements, and create your art at double size (pixel size, not DPI), it will render at its native resolution on iPad.

This way you can provide an iPhone app that's not specifically compatible with iPad yet doesn't render horribly when pixel doubled on the iPad.

I'm guessing this trick will also position you well for any future iPhone with a higher resolution screen that may or may not be announced next month.

As you can see below, when run at 2x on the iPad, the artwork remains crisp (naturally at the cost of larger file sizes for images).

Update:

Just to clarify, using a 2x image will use 4x the RAM as a normal image; it's up to you to figure out how the performance affects your application. Also, I haven't yet looked into a way of drawing text at the higher resolution (rendering the text to an image and using that is a possibility, but I wouldn't recommend something that clunky).

The Future of HTML

2010-05-10T17:05:00.001+01:00

From Wikipedia:

The first web browser, WorldWideWeb, was developed on the Nextstep platform. Some features and keyboard shortcuts now commonly found in web browsers can be traced to Nextstep conventions.
The basic layout options of HTML 1.0 and 2.0 are attributable to those features available in NeXT's Text class

Makes you wonder, if the NEXTSTEP APIs directly influenced the web (history lesson: NEXTSTEP was the OS that became Mac OS X), how much of the future of the web will directly be based on the technology and design patterns used in the iPhone OS?

You laugh, but a lot of HTML5 (canvas, css animation) already comes directly from the Mac OS X APIs, where they were implemented first.

Food for thought.

Related reading: Joe Hewitt's thoughts on the state of the web

Jailbroken iPad Gets Mouse Support

2010-05-09T21:40:00.001+01:00

Now all I need is Photoshop.

Via Sebastiaan de With.

Grace Support Blog Launched

2010-05-09T18:33:00.001+01:00

Lisa has launched a new blog to directly support all the users of Grace, answer their questions, and provide a lot more background information about the project.

I wholeheartedly recommend anyone with questions or comments to check it out and get in touch. I merely handle the technical questions here, and my e-mail address is readily available on my main website.

3. Why is the Picture vocabulary on the App so Simple/Complex?
The pictures chosen were the absolute minimum required to create good sentences without the need for much scrolling or searching. There are much more complex apps for people with a sophisticated vocabulary out there already so we didn't need to go there.
I was also determined that the app would work in real time on the simplest and oldest devices - without any delay. So you press it and it appears. This was to make it as accessible as possible for people who might have an older phone or for first time users.

If you're not involved with children with special needs, and have old iPhones or iPod touches you'd like to donate to Autism Ireland to help support them, there are details on the site too.

iPad + iPhone's Clock app

2010-04-11T23:26:00.020+01:00

Did a little experimenting this evening which brought some amusing and useful results, so I've been asked to share:

The iPhone 'Clock' application can be made run on iPad (for the most part) and it scales up pretty well. It runs perfectly fine in the SDK sandbox and it also is capable of setting system alarms (and the alarms can run in the background, as you do on your phone). Naturally this is pretty useful, as I don't believe there is any way to set wake-up alarms on iPad right now without this.

Considering I'm using iPad for everything now, I think an alarm ability might be of use!

THE STEPS

0: Be a paid developer in the iPhone Developer Program (prerequisite, you can't do this any other way)

1: Find a copy of the iPhone 3GS version of Clock (MobileTimer.app) for 3.1 or so (I've tested it back to 3.0, the 3.0 version works but the Stopwatch tab crashes)

2: Edit the Info.plist in the application to add the array key 'UIDeviceFamily', with two sub items '1' and '2'

3: Codesign the MobileTimer application (I use Terminal manually, Erica Sadun has a script that works too)

4: Drag and drop your newly-signed app to the Applications list for your iPad in the Xcode Organizer

5: Run the MobileTimer application on your iPad

You'll notice that it only runs in portait mode, which is a bummer. I'm sure you could fix this with some clever editing of the binary but I can't be bothered. The Timer tab doesn't quite work at all, so pretend it doesn't exist. You'll most likely also want to provide your own Default.png images or you'll have a horrible blurry splash screen.

Have fun!

Update:

The alarm time picker will refuse to show unless you omit step 2. Omitting step 2 makes the app run as an iPhone app (i.e. not fullscreen) but enables all functionality across all tabs. However, alarms you set in mini-mode will persist so if you need to you can pre-set all your alarms beforehand in that mode, and in the big mode only enable the alarms when you need them. Make sense?

Screenies:

One for the Humor Tag

2010-03-30T08:00:00.005+01:00

A day or so after submitting the universal (iPad) version of Speed to the review team, I received a curious email back. The reviewer had elected to reject the update because they couldn't make the 'no GPS lock' flashing icon go away on their test iPad.

After getting over the initial irritation, I realized what had happened: the reviewer had ignored the description and tested this on a device with no GPS that was most likely indoors chained to a desk. I sent off a snarky response and re-uploaded the same binary hoping they'd see their mistake. Hopefully it will be reviewed in time for launch day, but it isn't that important as a GPS-equipped iPad won't be released for another month anyway.

This also highlights an oversight in the supported devices options I get to choose when submitting: because the app is marked as working on all devices (as Apple suggested back at WWDC last year, suggesting external GPS units would come to iPod) I'm not allowed release an update that specifically requires GPS.

Oh well, just thought I'd share :-) if Apple rejects the update again I'll just add in some UI that bitches at you if you don't actually have a GPS lock in time.

Death Knell for PowerPC

2010-03-29T17:07:00.004+01:00

As all the news sites are reporting, Sony is about to release an update to the PlayStation 3 that disables the ability to install or run Linux on the PS3 (one of the original features touted at launch). This update is mandatory if you want to continue using the online/multiplayer features of the PS3/

Unsurprisingly there is outrage in the community.

Miguel de Icaza, the man behind Mono and Gnome, states the "JIT compiler for SPUs wouldnt exist without Linux/PS3" and he believes Sony is "putting a bullet [in] PPC innovation/work, one of the few affordable systems for development".

The maintainer of the SPU GCC back end, Andrew Thomas Pinksi, is livid:

"…more than that, the spu gcc backend is no longer going to be maintained by me."

What that means to you non techie folks is that the standard compiler used by all Linux distributions to create software (and Unix and Mac OS X) will no longer fully support the Cell processor, the last remaining credible desktop PowerPC platform. This will kill all interest in using the Cell in any Linux-based PowerPC workstations and seriously makes things look dire for the future of PowerPC.

Already, two major Linux distributions have announced that they're dropping PowerPC support (Fedora and OpenSUSE).

I think this is a travesty and Sony are making a huge mistake here, and it's very sad to see PowerPC having such a public execution. More than this, I'm furious that come April 1st I will have to choose between updating my PS3 so I can play games on it and losing my Linux partition forever, or keeping my Linux partition (in which I've invested quite a lot of effort) at the expense of not being able to play or update games.

State of the iPad

2010-03-29T01:33:00.005+01:00

iPad launches in the US next Saturday, and all the iPhone developers out there have by now submitted their applications to be considered for the App Store on launch day. I, like Marco Arment, don't believe I will be running any iPhone apps as-is on iPad, and ergo don't believe you should have to either¹:

"But then I saw the pixel-doubled version of my app in the simulator. It sucked, and it was completely unusable by my standards. I don’t think I’ll want to run any pixel-doubled apps on my iPad in practice."

With that in mind, I have submitted Universal updates for Grace, Speed and SameGame which will hopefully be live on launch day so that you have a fully iPad-compatible version at no extra charge when you get your iPad. As-is, they all have pretty much 1:1 feature parity with the iPhone versions. I'm working on some very cool updates to make use of iPad-specific features and UI, but they'll be gestating a little while longer.

The great thing about iPad's increase in screen size is that you can design brand new experiences into your apps that were never feasible before, for example two-player on-device multiplayer, and proper car dashboard replacements, etc. I'm really excited about what I'll be able to produce in the coming months.

1. One app you'll notice missing from my initial lineup is Lights Off. To be honest, I'm still figuring out how I can bring Lights Off to the big screen without it sucking, but I'll make sure to keep you up to date. It's something I want to bring to iPad fairly quickly. Also at this time I have no plans to bring Nuker to iPad; it's a more widgety type application and I don't think it would bring anything to the table on iPad.

Grace - Picture Exchange for Non-Verbal People

2010-03-24T12:31:00.004Z

Grace, our application for communication with non-verbal children is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch, and hopefully will be available Day 1 on the iPad App Store (the application has been submitted to Apple for approval).

Lisa and I have put a lot of effort into Grace to make it a simple yet powerful tool for children in need of a voice, and we have much more planned! For now, Ciara O'Brien has the full story over at The Irish Times: 'Using a Phone Voice'

The Grace website is up at http://www.steventroughtonsmith.com/grace

Apple's iBooks Dynamic Page Curl

2010-02-15T17:27:00.005Z

A week ago at NSConference I decided to try and figure out how Apple performed the page curl animation shown in the iPad announcement keynote.

It ended up being pretty easy to implement, and the page curl code has been in the OS since the beginning (although it's currently a private class - I've filed a radar asking to open the API that you can dupe if you'd like. rdar://problem/7616859). Basically you have to add in the finger angle tracking code and figure out the basic physics to make it believable. My code is pretty rough but it gives you a basic idea of how to get this working.

Here's hoping it's opened up because if it's not, then the iBooks app (distributed through the App Store) will be provably using private APIs which doesn't help anyone.

Here's a sample project that you should be able to build and run which shows the effect in action; the samplecode currently works for iPhone 3.0 and above.

Download Sample Code

Creating an iPad Application

2010-01-29T15:24:00.003Z

One of the great things about the iPhone is how limited it is; to design an application for it, you just need to take one very simple idea and implement it really nicely. With the iPad, it won't be as simple; you have a lot more screen real-estate and the interaction model with the device is totally different. Can you imagine a fart app selling on this device? I certainly can't.

Instead of scaling up iPhone applications for the iPad, it's going to be more that we'll have to scale down desktop applications. There's an instant disadvantage to any developer who hasn't got established desktop software in their repertoire. Most of our iPhone apps simply will not work on the iPad because the apps' concepts do not fit this new platform. Noel of SnappyTouch has already 'announced' that he will not be porting his existing iPhone app to iPad, and I think that will ring true with many other developers.

The sky is the limit with the iPad platform, and there are some exciting times ahead. As mentioned in the keynote, this will be a whole new gold rush for developers.

"Magic"

2010-01-29T00:43:00.001Z

And guys, they have a point. This thing could save the publishing industry and the newspaper/magazine industry. It could revolutionize the digital fine arts. It does essentially everything that can possibly fit on a screen that size, almost unconsciously. It is so magic that it does things you’d never imagine wanting something to do.

• Original post

That Changes Everything

2010-01-29T00:27:00.004Z

Some people are claiming the iPad is a large iPod Touch, but I think that nothing could be further from the truth. Precisely because the iPad is larger, it’s not a device you’re going to carry in your pocket. It’s something that’s going to be laying on your desk, or piled on top of a few books on the coffee table. And that changes everything.

Noel Llopis muses as to where the iPad really fits in the market. I agree with pretty much everything except for the demographics; I think the iPad could also be a major influence on college/university students (and hey, I'm one of them).

A Mere Pop-Up Window

2010-01-28T21:10:00.004Z

Yes, it’s closed–and developers still need to get Apple’s blessing before iPad users can install their wares. But, in fact, that’s really a feature–not a detraction. If we seriously want computing appliances to fade into the background and put the focus on what they can do for their users, such safeguards and gating are necessary today.

Bill Heyman in his post "The iPad Surfaces!". You know, on a related note, one of the amazing things about the iPad is that an entire iPhone-app's worth of complexity and power can be implemented as a mere pop-up window in a real iPad application. This thing blows the doors off mobile computing.

"…nothing will be quite the same again"

2010-01-28T15:17:00.001Z

You may or may not be in the queue for an iPad in March, April, May or June. Or you may decide to stay your hand for version 2.0 or 3.0. But believe me the iPad is here to stay and nothing will be quite the same again.

Stephen Fry on Apple's new iPad.

'Apple's Tablet Obsession Reaches a Fevered Pitch'

2010-01-21T17:49:00.001Z

Whatever Apple does announce, you can be sure that the result will be another lemming trail leading up to the local Apple Store. Until Steve Jobs steps down, that's going to be the result of virtually everything the man announces. I'd never bet against him.

Paul Thurrott over at his SuperSite for Windows.

Apple Planning Own Search Engine?

2010-01-21T07:54:00.007Z

There's a lot of talk now about Apple thinking of replacing Google as the default search engine on iPhone, however the most interesting quote is from BusinessWeek suggesting Apple is working on their own search engine:

Even if it’s consummated, an Apple-Bing deal may prove short-lived. The person familiar with Apple’s thinking says Apple has a “skunk works” looking at a search offering of its own, and believes that “if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it’s about buying itself time.” Given the importance of search and its tie to mobile advertising — and the iPhone maker’s desire to slow Google — “Apple isn’t going to outsource the future.”

It reminds me of Steve Ballmer's telling quote from the second Engadget Show in late 2009:

It doesn't feel very optional to be a significant player in the computer business in 2009 and not be trying on Search.

We're possibly about to see Google forcefully uprooted from iPhone OS 4.0, with Apple now owning their own mapping company, advertising company, and now in talks to bring Bing in as the default search engine. Let's hope the YouTube app doesn't get pulled, a lot of people use it regularly. Perhaps it will be moved to a download on the App Store? I guess Apple needs something to do with their new $1bn server farm. :-)

The Apple Licensing Myth

2010-01-20T06:10:00.003Z

Legends die hard. In the pre-Web days, they got printed and reprinted, told and retold and so became official, like spinach being good for you because it held the iron your red cells needed. After decades of the disgusting veggie inflicted upon young kids - I remember, a scientist went back to the bench and found out there was no digestible iron whatsoever in spinach. You don’t get calcium by ingesting chalk, you need a calcium compound that’ll get through the sophisticated filters in the digestive system. Eating spinach gives you as much digestible iron as sucking nails.

Once top Apple exec, and founder of Be, Inc., debunks the theory that Apple must license the iPhone OS.

Nook v1.0 on Android Emulator

2009-12-23T03:34:00.009Z

I decided to check out the Nook earlier today; naturally it's not available in Ireland so I downloaded the firmware update from Barnes and Noble and set to work on getting it to run on something.

I didn't expect to get very far, but after a little hacking it was actually working.

To get it to run I had to:

• grab the firmware update using the tools at http://code.nookdevs.com/

• unpack the system folder out of the firmware update using said tools and gunzip

• replace lib/libaudioflinger.so with that from a clean Cupcake build of Android (took it from the emulator)

• disassemble the classes.dex file inside framework/services.jar using baksmali

• modify 'ServerThread.smali' to remove the line " if-lt v0, v1, :cond_483 " (it looped on waiting for eInk display)

• recompile the dex file using smali and re-insert it into the jar

• create a system.img from the system folder using mkyaffs2image

• replace the system.img of my Cupcake emulator build with the Nook one just created

• boot the emulator with a resolution of 480x944 (the highest I could get it; it's about 120px too thin for the eInk display)

This is by no means a guide, but it should hopefully point more capable Android hackers in the right direction if they want to get this booting. I'm pretty sure that's all that was required.

Networking is working fine; and the arrow keys on the keyboard control the page turning

Here are some screenshots!

UPDATE:

A video for you non-believers ;-)

Nook on Android Emulator from Steven Troughton-Smith on Vimeo.

Grace - Picture Exchange For Autistic Children

2009-12-11T10:40:00.006Z

First look at Grace, our picture exchange communication application for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

THE IPHONE is set to become a communication tool for children with autism, with the testing of a new application for the device.

The application is designed to be used in a similar way to the Picture Exchange Communication System (Pecs), which allows children to build sentences using a book of laminated pictures attached to a board by Velcro.

The application, which is being developed under the working title Grace, is the brainchild of Lisa Domican, a parent of two children with autism. She was inspired by O2’s marketing campaign for the iPhone. Before the launch of the device in 2008, the mobile operator ran advertisements on buses in Dublin. Ms Domican noticed the advertisements and realised the phone’s potential as an alternative to the Pecs books used by her 10-year-old daughter, Grace.

“You are constantly having to replace loose cards and make new ones,” said Ms Domican. “With the iPhone, the screen looks like a Pecs book. It’s ok to have a four-year-old walking around with a Pecs book; it’s not ok for a 10 or 12-year-old. They’re very personal to the kids; it’s their voice. The [Pecs books] really stand out, whereas the iPhone is discreet and always there.”

The idea is backed by O2 Ireland, which supplied the devices for the development and testing of the application. The mobile network is already involved with Irish Autism Action and it was through this link that Ms Domican got backing from O2.

Ms Domican linked up with Steven Troughton-Smith, a software developer for the iPhone who has created a number of bestselling applications.

Mr Troughton-Smith, a student at Dublin City University, took the description of what Ms Domican wanted and turned it into a working version of Grace.

He developed the application to look exactly like a Pecs book. So instead of carrying around a Pecs book, older children can use the iPhone to choose from a range of pictures and place them on a virtual strip of Velcro.

Ms Domican’s daughter Grace has become so comfortable with the technology that she adds her own photos to the application’s library using the iPhone’s camera.

The application is undergoing trials on five devices in three schools to see if other children, parents and tutors can use it easily. Once testing has been completed, it will be submitted to the iPhone App Store.

CIARA O'BRIEN The Irish Times

Orbit 1.0 - Week in Review

2009-10-25T14:11:00.008Z

Orbit has been available a full week now, and has performed phenomenally in the market. It's about to cross the 50,000 users mark, and I thought it would be a good idea to share some statistics of the Cydia Store market.

Here's the device breakdown (of 45,254 devices):

It's interesting to note that the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS are almost identical in market share so far (in fact, for most of this week the 3GS was ahead by about 4%, but the 3G pulled ahead at the last minute). Remember, the 3GS is only a couple months old.

So, with that in mind, what OS is everyone running?

As you can see, the majority are on the latest version of iPhone OS, although there is a significant number remaining on 3.0.

Orbit has been received positively in the media, too, although the highlight of my week was getting the great Stephen Fry to use Orbit. From his e-mail to me, he said…

"Smooth and stable and genuinely useful. It’s there on my dock, the first app ever to deserve a place there…"

I can't wait to wrap up v1.1 and push it out to all of you - and if you like Orbit, please tell your friends! It's only $1.99 on the Cydia Store, and you get free updates.

Orbit - bringing 'SpringBoard Exposé' to life

2009-10-18T06:26:00.006+01:00

Early this month Ocean Observations posted a video on YouTube of a concept they dubbed 'SpringBoard Exposé'; a way to quickly navigate the multitude of home screen pages many of us have on our iPhones or iPod touch.

In chatting with Louie over at The Iconfactory, he 'suggested' I go and see if I could make it into a reality. After two hours of work, I had the concept up and running on my iPhone.

Simply tap the Orbit icon and you're zoomed to what I dub the 'Orbital View' of your home screen, from there you can tap any of the pages to zoom directly there. For anyone with many pages of apps, this will change the way you use your device, I guarantee!

Fast forward to today, its first day of release, and Orbit is a huge hit on the Cydia Store. Louie cooked up some awesome artwork with a little prodding from me, and the reviews across the web have been outstanding. For posterity, here are some of the reactions from users on Twitter:

"Very polished, works flawless for me"

"Just bought Orbit from Cydia. It kicks ass!"

"Just purchased, and installed Orbit!!! This is the best iphone app I have on my phone.. I works GREAT!!! Thank You!!!"

"Just installed Orbit... My life is so much easier now. Thank you! Probably the best thing ever for the iPhone."

Orbit 1.0 is available now from the Cydia Store at $1.99, but the story only begins here. There are many awesome improvements in the pipeline, and I hope you all enjoy Orbit as much as I have enjoyed making it. Please spread the word!

'Expose' for iPhone

2009-10-15T20:23:00.010+01:00

Working on this little [jailbreak] modification, hope you all get to see it very soon. Still trying to figure out a name for it (can't use Expose or Spaces, would be nice to have a name of its own). Haven't done any caching yet, so there are a load of speed improvements coming. But for anyone trying to navigate 11 home screens, even this as-is is really really cool.

Stack v3 Alpha 2 Released

2009-10-10T22:54:00.004+01:00

Stack v3 Alpha 2 is now up for contributors; check here for more details.

Whatever you do, make sure to read the readme as there are some important gotchas!

New in Alpha 2:

• Multiple Stacks

• Dimming of screen when opening a Stack

• Reflective Dock support

• Support for iTunes 9's App Management

• Stack Update Notifications (notification when there's a new version available)

• New Grid View animations (temporary)

• Stacks are findable/openable using Spotlight

Bioshock for Mac

2009-09-25T14:49:00.004+01:00

October 7 marks a key point in next-gen Mac gaming, as it marks the date that Unreal Engine 3.0 finally sees a release on the Mac. Feral Interactive have announced they will be releasing a native port of 'Bioshock'. I'm rather confused about the state of Unreal Engine 3 for Mac. I know well the port was well underway in 2005 when I contacted the developer, and at the time it was planned for PowerPC G4 and upwards. The desire was to make it Intel-only, but back then it wasn't quite feasible. Asides the obvious issues, also, at the time, bugs in gcc4's code generation were a big problem. Eventually Unreal Tournament 3 was announced for Mac in December 2007 by Macsoft, and Gears of War was also officially stated to 'be coming'. Neither game have seen the light of day as of yet, although Ryan Gordon posted screenshots of the Mac version a year ago. Unfortunately, this is what the native Mac gaming situation is right now; broken promises and many-years-late ports. I'd like to say that at this point the engine wouldn't be relevant or the most amazing graphics engine on the block, but I'd be lying. Even now, three years after Gears of War was released on Xbox, no developer has ported a game with graphics of that calibre to the Mac. Even so, I'm very excited to see Bioshock come to the Mac, and can't wait to play it. Here's Feral's press release:

DATE:

Thursday, September 24, 2009

On October 7th, prepare to descend to the depths of the undersea city of Rapture when Feral Interactive releases the critically acclaimed BioShock® for Mac. Developed by 2K Boston and 2K Australia, and originally published by 2K Games, BioShock introduces gamers to an exciting world filled with fascinating characters, intelligent enemies and complex moral choices that define the foundation of the game’s world. With its rich story, meticulous attention to visual detail, tense action and infinite replay value, BioShock delivers the perfect blend of storytelling and first-person action.

Barely surviving a plane crash, the player lands in icy uncharted waters and discovers the undersea city of Rapture, a failed utopia whose citizens had embraced genetic engineering before descending into pure anarchy. Power and greed have run amok and the city has succumbed to civil war. To survive, gamers must turn everything they find into a weapon, use their powers of observation to piece together what happened and make the difficult decisions necessary in order to escape a paradise gone badly wrong.

Fans have embraced BioShock’s mysterious world filled with powerful technology and creative gameplay. BioShock is also renowned for its rich visual detail depicting a gorgeous Art Deco world set deep beneath the sea.

“The look and feel of BioShock is breathtaking,” said Feral Interactive’s David Stephen.“Combined with the remarkable depth and sophistication of the storyline, as well as the pure adrenaline rush of playing, BioShock will set new benchmarks for Mac gaming.”

BioShock will retail in North America for US $49.95,£34.99 (inc. VAT) in the UK and€39.95 (inc. VAT) throughout Europe. It is currently available to pre-order from Feral's online store ( http://www.feralinteractive.com/?section=buy&language=english).

More details are now available at: http://feralinteractive.com/game/bioshock.

Minimum system requirements for BioShock include a 1.8 GHz Intel Mac, 1.5 GB RAM, 128 MB graphics card, DVD drive, 8 GB of hard disk space and Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later. The game does not support Intel GMA integrated video chipsets, but does run on the latest generation of MacBooks and Mac Minis.

EDITORS: Screenshots, logos and other essential graphics and multimedia tools for BioShock can be found online in the Feral Press Area ( http://press.feral.co.uk). Please use your assigned login recently provided to you. If you do not have a login, please contact Brad Gibson, Feral Marketing/PR Manager, at bgibson@feralinteractive.com.

About Feral Interactive

Feral interactive is a leading publisher of games for Macintosh platform founded in 1996 and based in London, England. It is responsible for such Macintosh hits as Black&White, Colin McRae Rally Mac, Lego Star Wars II and Tomb Raider Anniversary.

All trademarks and copyrights contained herein are the property of their respective holders.

CONTACT:

Brad Gibson at bgibson@feralinteractive.com

+1 918 691 3420

Palm Pre Launches in Ireland October 16

2009-09-24T14:29:00.004+01:00

The launch date and pricing has finally been announced for O2's exclusive on the Palm Pre. It's pretty clear that the pricing was chosen to compete with iPhone, with the device starting at €99 on the lowest plan, and free on the highest plan. Virtually all the plans are the same as the iPhone plans featurewise. You're looking at €419 if you're wanting to pick one up off-contract, although you're still SIM-locked to O2 (although, to be fair, since the device is so open and hackable I wouldn't expect that to last long). It's also pretty damning that Android was announced in November '07 and there's still not an Android phone available officially in Ireland. It just looks like the carriers here don't want anything to do with it :-)

RSS State of the Union, 2009

2009-09-19T18:47:00.004+01:00

A day ago I posted a quick survey to Twitter about the state of RSS on iPhone. Over a hundred people responded with pretty much the same answers:

There is currently no 'good' RSS application on iPhone. There's a clear demand for a really sweet looking, fast, and easy to use news reader that syncs with Google Reader. Those who said they don't use an RSS reader on iPhone said it was for want of an acceptable, native client.

Most people have settled on Byline as their news reader, and there are a lot that just use Google Reader through Safari.

Quite a few people mentioned that they want a news reader that is more like a good Twitter client (although, you could say the response base was biased).

Roughly $5 seems to be the general consensus regarding what a good RSS reader should cost, with some people saying they would never pay for an RSS reader and even some saying they'd pay over $10. Certainly interesting information for anyone pricing their applications.

Only one person mentioned they'd like feed searching, but the majority did specify that they want caching for offline viewing.

A built-in browser and attachment viewing is also ranking heavily among wanted features.

Interestingly, several people said that they would absolutely hate if the app adds an 'unread' badge on SpringBoard. I understand that myself, as I hate the unread badges, but it's nice to see I'm not alone.

Those whom mentioned a landscape feature said they'd want the ability to disable any landscape modes entirely, so that they can easily read when not standing/sitting up. Not one person said they'd like a landscape mode for reading.

Finally, Instapaper, Twitter and Facebook integration were mentioned several times, as well as in-app e-mailing of articles.

Useful results, and it shows a clear market for a fresh news reader. I can certainly add that to my 'ToDo' list of possible iPhone projects :-) Hopefully this data is useful to other developers and iPhone users.

Chalk Status Update

2009-09-17T01:24:00.004+01:00

A quick status update on Chalk, as I get quite a lot of questions about it. A few things conspired to keep me from active work on it over the past two months: One) Exams ('nuff said) Two) Facebook 3.0 The second item there may sound silly, but specifically, Chalk makes heavy use of the Three20 library that is part of the Facebook application. It powers everything from the rich bubbles to the buttons to the image and web browsing components of the app. I had resigned to wait until FB 3.0 was released before trying to merge in all the changes in Three20 into Chalk. Beyond those two, there are major Twitter changes on the horizon (retweet API, location data, the second Twitpocalypse) and I'd much rather build towards them than release early and panic trying to retrofit them into the app. As soon as Chalk is ready I'll let you know about beta testing opportunities. Yes it's been a long time coming, but remember this isn't my full-time job :-)

The Cider Portability Engine

2009-09-15T22:01:00.004+01:00

I want to spend a blog post gushing on a technology, in particular, Cider from TransGaming Inc. In the past, games companies porting titles to the Mac had to either rewrite a game to run, or they had to rewrite a game to work with their own DirectX compatibility layers. This process takes a lot of time and money, as you can imagine. Cider changes the game completely. Cider is a wrapping technology that runs the Windows versions of a game in an 'emulated' form, essentially translating all the Windows and DirectX specific stuff to run directly on the Mac. The way it works is essentially simple and very easy for TransGaming to adapt to new titles; it literally encompasses the entire Windows folder structure including the game, and runs the actual Windows binary (.exe) as if it were a Mac application. This provides you with a double-clickable Mac game that, to the end user, seems just as native as any other Mac game. Naturally, there is a performance penalty (which differs depending on the game) but it's often not that much worse than an actual native port of a Mac game. Because a Cider game package is so simple, fans and hackers alike have taken it upon themselves to try and wrap other, existing Windows games in Cider wrappers. Naturally this bends all sorts of licensing issues at the least, and is piracy at the worst, but the potential is there to flag a list of popular games that will work with minimal effort using Cider so that TransGaming themselves may try and court the developers and see if they want a Mac port. Cider itself is ever-evolving, and today boasts much better performance and compatibility than a year ago. It leverages features of OS X like multithreaded OpenGL, and is a self-contained bundle (there's no user-facing directory tree for a game, just the game itself you can drag and drop anywhere you like). Naturally, as Cider itself improves, so do all the games it works with. For many games, making them run is a simple case of tweaking configuration files and replacing the internal Windows game folder with that of your choosing. Other games require more poking and often require no-cd versions of the Windows binary. Other games don't work at all. But those that do include such impressive titles as: • Assassin's Creed • Dawn of War (and expansions) • FarCry • Elder Scrolls: Oblivion • Half Life 2 • Grand Theft Auto 3 (and Vice City, and San Andreas) With the latest version of Cider (included in the Warhammer Online free demo), even Fallout 3 now launches to the main menu (although the actual game part doesn't yet work). I'm optimistic that a future version of Cider will run Fallout 3 perfectly. Naturally, in the official scene, EA, among others, is making massive use of Cider. Some official games that use it are: • The Sims 3 • Spore • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 • Warhammer Online • Battlefield 2142 I did some unscientific tests pitting the native OS X (Intel) version of Doom 3 up against a Ciderized Windows version of Doom 3 (that I hacked together for the purposes of this blog post) on a last-gen MacBook Pro. The Cider version performed about 50fps, on average (60fps being the standard maximum refresh cap on Doom 3). It looked identical to the Mac version, and performed just as well at the same resolution. Doom 3 (id tech 4) is one of the most graphically demanding engines that Aspyr (arguably the premier native Mac porting house) has ported to the Mac. That the Windows version of the game, using the Cider portability engine, is able to run just as smooth is certainly a sign. I believe that there's not much future for native Mac gaming, and Cider is the future. Cider games are performant, and can be released on the same day (in same box) as the Windows versions. Contrast that to the native Mac porting scene: • Black and White 2 was released in early 2009 for the Mac, four years after the Windows version • Call of Duty 4 was released a year after its Windows counterpart • Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3 were promised for (and mostly ported to!) the Mac, still haven't been released • SimCity 4, ported by Aspyr to the Mac in 2003, even as a Universal Binary and Intel-native, _still_ does not run smooth on the latest Macs. Long live native Mac gaming. You won't be missed :-)

Google’s Response To The FCC

2009-08-21T23:20:00.000+01:00

Techcrunch has Google's response. Interestingly, Google is the only member of the three to have redacted portions in their letter.

"The redacted information relates specifically to private business discussions between Apple and Google regarding the Google Voice application and, as such, it constitutes commercial data 'which would customarily be guarded from competitors'…"

Hmm…

AT&T's Response to the FCC

2009-08-21T22:57:00.000+01:00

AT&T's response to the FCC has also been made public.

"…we plan to take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T's 3G network"

Possibly the most interesting tidbit from the sixteen-page document; if AT&T relents and begins to allow VoIP services such as Skype on their network, it bodes well for Apple allowing iPhone VoIP apps work over 3G worldwide.

"Apple Answers the FCC’s Questions"

2009-08-21T22:26:00.000+01:00

Apple today published their answers to the FCC's questions regarding the Google Voice rejection issue and it contains some very interesting information about the App Store.

"There are more than 40 full-time trained reviewers…"

Merely forty full-time reviewers for 65,000 applications and counting. Crikey! As far as I know, most, if not all, of them are based in Cupertino, so AT&T's network terms-of-service is law when developing your app.

"…at least two different reviewers study each application so that the review process is applied uniformly"

This makes sense, but it clearly shows why reviews for the App Store take so long.

"…roughly 20% of [apps] are not approved as originally submitted"

Interesting statistic; Apple does mention that the majority of rejections are for bugs and QA issues, and developers are free to fix and re-submit. No figure is given for completely denied apps.

"In little more than a year, we have reviewed more than 200,000 applications and updates."

If I didn't think those forty people were overworked before, I certainly do now.

RE 'The Android Opportunity'

2009-08-17T18:15:00.000+01:00

John Gruber over at Daring Fireball has posted a great article about Android, detailing what he thinks handset makers should do to prevent Android from becoming an also-ran. He also writes:

Emphasize that Android apps are background-capable, and that there is no centralized App Store under one company’s ironclad control. There are no tales of rejected Android apps because there are no rejected Android apps.

Seems like he's forgotten that Google actually do remove apps from their marketplace:

Google has reportedly pulled tethering apps from the Android Market. According to at least one developer, who contributed to the WiFi Tether for Root Users app, Google are citing their distribution agreements with carriers as the prompt for removal: “Google enters into distribution agreements with device manufacturers and Authorized Carriers to place the Market software client application for the Market on Devices. These distribution agreements may require the involuntary removal of Products in violation of the Device manufacturer’s or Authorized Carrier’s terms of service” — Google Developer Distribution Agreement

An unfortunate addition is that Google restricts developer phones from being able to download or buy paid apps from the Android Market.

Google is denying those developers access to copy-protected applications sold in the Android Market because developers have a higher level of access to the G1 phone than regular users, and could potentially break the copy protection on those applications…

Not a good way to treat your developers, I would think. If you submit a paid app, you cannot even see it on the store from your developer phone; you have to buy another Android device to test it or see what it looks like on the store.

EeePC 901 + Snow Leopard

2009-08-16T18:13:00.001+01:00

I found this article earlier explaining the quickest way to install Snow Leopard (10A432) on a PC box, so I decided to install onto my EeePC netbook to test the theory. It works! Alright it isn't as simple as that. Here's the status right now with just my simple mods: As you can imagine, the trackpad issue is bothering me just a little… You'll have to do a bit of hacking to get to the state above, however. I cannot, and will not, provide copies of any of the hacks performed below; I have given a reasonable amount of information so that others can do that for you. Please don't ask as I won't respond. Keyboard Support You will need to compile yourself a Snow Leopard version of the VoodooPS2 drivers from http://chameleon.osx86.hu/. This is relatively straightforward, but means you need a working Snow Leopard machine with a working 10.6 SDK. You will need to switch compiler to GCC4.0 for one of the drivers to prevent a compile error, and you will also need to edit a line ('private' to 'public') in an OS header to convince something else to compile. Theoretically, this driver should enable the trackpad too but it hasn't for me, but someone with more experience may fix this (please do! and send me the working one!). Graphics Driver You will need an Eee-compatible copy of Natit.kext (I used the one from the EeeMac driver set) and you will also need to hex-edit the AppleIntelGMA950 and AppleIntelIntegratedFramebuffer kexts to accept your graphics card (find and replace all instances of 8680A227 with 8680AE27 in both). You will need to edit the Info.plist of both kexts too to add your card's ID (0xae278086). Bluetooth You will need to add your Bluetooth device/vendor IDs to IOBluetoothFamily.kext's BroadcomUSBBluetoothHCIController.kext. Audio You will need to install CHUD from the Developer Tools included on the Snow Leopard disc. You will also need Audeee. Follow instructions on the EeeMac blog for Leopard to see how it works. Other Follow the rest of the instructions on the EeeMac blog that don't involve replacing extensions. A lot of the hacked extensions that worked on Leopard will fail to load on Snow Leopard and may render your machine unbootable. If you want to experiment, at least know what you're doing.

After doing all that, you'll have a mostly-working Snow Leopard install on the Eee. :) I haven't done any performance testing, as it's a pain using an external mouse for the moment. Everything feels snappy, and I played a 720p trailer (of Bolt) from the Apple website and it was watchable. Happy hacking! I cannot, and will not, provide copies of any of the hacks performed above; I have given a reasonable amount of information so that others can do that for you. Please don't ask as I won't respond.

iNdustrial Design

2009-08-07T01:18:00.000+01:00

Lately I have been subjecting my Twitter followers to photographs of (…pause…) Apple hardware. Specifically, older Apple hardware designed by Jonathan Ive and his team. Apple has always had design foremost in their product planning, but it was Ive who infused Apple's industrial design with an energetic and youthful vibrance. Apple often mentions their major product innovations, with milestones set at the original Macintosh introduction, the iPod introduction, and the introduction of iPhone. You could argue that the original iMac was of the same calibre in its impact on the world of computing. It made such a splash because it bucked conventional thinking about the design of devices from the inside out. It was that inspiration that redefined Apple. Apple was pushed towards a new, youthful market, whereas before the original diehard Mac fanatics were trending towards the older age groups. It was this youth that pushed Apple towards OS X's UI, music, iPod and iPhone. You can see it in all of Ive's designs too, with their translucent plastics and beautiful curves. He was just past 30 when the iMac was released, but you could tell he was still a twenty-something at heart. Apple, including Ive, has grown up since. It's a very different company from that which inspired me to enjoy computers. While I really like the current design trend (Silver + Black), I still have a special place in my heart for the older designs. I've made it my duty to lovingly collect and preserve as many examples as I can, so as of late I've been scouring everywhere for people getting rid of older Macs and inspiring hardware designs. Word-of-mouth (and eBay) is great, although the biggest problem so far is shipping (computers tend to be heavy). You can keep an eye on my Flickr if you're interested to see what I pick up, as I tend to photograph everything. :-)

Retro-envy

2009-07-30T15:15:00.000+01:00

With all this talk of an Apple tablet in the news recently I was overcome with nostalgia (or, as I call it, 'retro-envy', considering I wasn't even five when the original Newton came out). Digging out my Newton MP2100, I determined to pimp it out with storage and some networking ability. I had a key hurdle to overcome before I could manage this: I didn't have a serial cable with which to install packages onto my Newton. After a little scrounging, I found an ancient EigerCom 33kbps PCMCIA modem that had been used in an old PowerBook 1400cs. Assuming this would 'just work' with my phone lines, I hastily plugged it into the Newton and into the wall. Fortunately, the Newton recognized and could use this card off the bat (handy!). The only problem was actually dialing up! Nine out of ten times, the modem would complain that it couldn't find a dial tone. In the end, I switched the modem to the 14.4kbps mode which allowed me to dial in every time. Getting WiFi working isn't too difficult, if you do it right. If you do it wrong, like I did, you'll spend hours scratching your head wondering why it won't work. I followed the great howto on the 'My Apple Newton' blog and installed everything I needed. I also installed the 'More WiFi Cards' package, thinking it may be useful in the future. Big mistake! Apparently, if you install the 'More WiFi Cards' package, it stops the standard accepted WiFi cards from working. It took me several hours to realize this, after purchasing a cheap Lucent Orinoco Gold 802.11b card from eBay and trying to configure it with my network. The good news: it works without problems on the latest Airport Extreme base stations (if you have b/g compatibility turned on). Here's a quick shot of my MP2100 on Twitter: I have since ponied up for a working serial cable and used both unixnpi (command line) and NCX to install packages. NCX also allows you install packages over WiFi, which makes things a lot easier and faster. Considering the MP2100 was released in 1997, two years before 802.11b even existed on paper, I think that's quite a feat. :-) While browsing eBay for Newton-related items, I came across this MP120 in perfect condition for a mere £21. I placed a bid a couple days before it closed, fully expecting to be outbid by a large amount. Amazingly, I wasn't, and today my beautiful MP120 arrived. Definitely a steal! I have a few more retro goodies en route to me, ranging from ATA flash storage for the Newton (now possible thanks to the recently-released ATA driver) to an eMate 300, also a steal. Will post more about them when they come!

Palm Pre SDK != 'Web Apps'

2009-07-18T00:22:00.000+01:00

Palm opened up their webOS SDK for the Palm Pre on July 16th, allowing anyone to check it out and start developing applications for the Pre. However, some developers are finding problems that prevent them from bringing their applications to the device. Craig Hunter, an iPhone developer, writes:

In my quest to re-experience the early days of app development on a new mobile platform, I didn't rewind one year like I was hoping -- I went back two years, back to the days when we could only develop web apps on the iPhone. I wrote this piece back then, bitching about the limitations of web apps on the iPhone. It seems we're right back in the same boat with webOS.

He specifically laments the lack of OpenGL|ES support and the accelerometer data being too inaccurate (currently limited to four readings per second). He raises some important points, with the above major stumbling blocks for those thinking of writing games, but he's wrong in saying that the Pre is akin to iPhone's web app 'SDK' as it was presented back at WWDC 2007. Palm's apps aren't web apps; yes they use javascript and HTML, but they tie into the system services with such. There is no other 'native' API; all applications, including the entire system shell, are built the same way and have the same capabilities. Really, Craig's found out that the Pre has (in effect) a sandbox for applications, and, if you think of it, it's not unlike the iPhone SDK sandbox. Bloggers lambasted the original iPhone SDK for providing only a baby subset of the actual features of the iPhone. Has it stopped growth, or a booming 65,000 app market with 1.5 billion unit sales? Of course not! Palm's lack of developer access to certain functions is a mere by-product of the immaturity of the platform. The reason there is no OpenGL|ES support on the Pre is because the Pre doesn't have an OpenGL|ES graphics driver. Currently the entire OS is using software-based drawing and animation (using directFB I believe). This is why webOS isn't as smooth as the iPhone in its animations or scrolling. But this is merely a software limitation, which will no doubt be improved upon with software updates. Palm has also proven that they're a much more open company than Apple in all their dealings with the Pre hacking community, which has impressed me to no end. I fully expect them to keep adding great features to their SDK and listening to the developer feedback. I do believe the accelerometer issue above to be an oversight; it's far more likely that Palm only envisioned game developers using the accelerometer at higher refresh rates, and the Pre wasn't initially designed for gaming, more being a re-imagining of Palm's canned Foleo project. That's not to say the Pre will never support gaming; the GPU in the Pre hardware is a damn good PowerVR SGX 530 chip, of the same family as that in the iPhone 3GS, just with a lower maximum polygon/sec count. As soon as there's a proper driver in the OS, and WebKit is re-tooled to use the GPU for its rendering, we should expect some really awesome updates to webOS. It's just a matter of time…

No promo codes for apps rated 17+

2009-07-17T06:37:00.000+01:00

People are only now finding out what 17+ apps and rating systems entail; any application rated 17+ is refused the ability to have promotional codes generated, so you cannot send out review copies, etc. TUAW writes:

Apple specifies that any application that may contain high levels of offensive language, violence, sexual content, or references to drugs or alcohol receive a rating of 17+. But, according to Apple, apps that feature an embedded web browser or provide access to 3rd party content also automatically require the 17+ rating, regardless of the application's content or intended audience.

Marco Arment provides a little more detail:

Assuming Apple applies their standards on what constitutes “unfiltered internet content” somewhat uniformly, this will affect, among others, any subsequent versions of: Instapaper Every Twitter and Tumblr client that can show others’ content Every RSS reader Every Flickr client Every instant-messaging client (remember, text profanity counts) Every social-networking client Most ebook readers

However, it's worse than that. If you set a rating for an application before you've finished it and uploaded to iTunes Connect, there is no way to change the rating afterwards. So say, for example, you edit the application to remove offensive content or, as mentioned above, remove an inbuilt browser, you cannot change the rating for your application back to sane levels, thus preventing you from generating promo codes for it! Until recently it was even nastier: If you had even a single 17+ rated application entry on iTunes Connect, whether it had been uploaded/finished or not, you were forbidden from making any promo codes for any of your other apps, even if they were rated 4+. I fell into that trap by having my (unreleased) Doom port listed on iTunes Connect as 17+; for months I was unable to generate promo codes for my other apps until I contacted Apple with a 'WTF?'. Fortunately, you were able to modify the rating at the time, unlike now. I really hope Apple sort out this mess soon, because when the App Store system works it works really well.

SameGame v2.0

2009-07-07T02:50:00.000+01:00

Coming Soon…

Discussion Forum Now Open!

2009-07-06T10:39:00.000+01:00

It's still a work-in-progress, but I've opened up a forum where you can go to ask about Stack/Chalk/Lights Off/Speed, read FAQs, chat, etc. Browse over, register, and start asking questions or posting feedback!

Speech Synthesis on iPhone 3GS

2009-07-06T06:11:00.002+01:00

Posted this on Twitter a week back, but maybe it's of some interest to blog readers; here's how to do simple voice synthesis on the iPhone 3GS (3GS-only, I'm afraid). It's a private API, but hopefully if we file enough Radars they'll make it a public one.

To enable the following code to work you'll need to link the VoiceServices.framework (from the PrivateFrameworks folder of the SDK) in your app.

NSObject *v = [[NSClassFromString(@"VSSpeechSynthesizer") alloc] init]; [v startSpeakingString:@"All your base are belong to us"];

Apologies for my lazy 'NSObject' define above, but you get the idea :-)

With that, you have simple speech synthesis for your application (obviously you cannot include this when you submit to the App Store as it links to a private framework, but you can use it in your internal applications). It requires the 3GS because the Speech stuff just isn't in the firmware for the older devices.

Obligatory video below:

Quake 3 on iPhone 3GS

2009-07-01T01:47:00.000+01:00

I posted these to Twitter, but I'll put them here too for posterity. Here are screenshots of my newly compiled version of Quake 3 running on the iPhone 3GS on max graphics settings. I made my own icon for it as I didn't like the original. Do note that the frame rate generally dips by 10fps when I press the screenshot buttons, and it runs really smooth on device! No special hacks used when building; I did turn on auto vectorization and NEON in the compiler settings.

Stack v3 Alpha 1 : Video Demo!

2009-06-24T18:49:00.001+01:00

Here's a quick video of how (the unreleased) Stack v3 works. I think it's much improved - check it out: Many thanks to all who've donated (and received their alpha version of Stack v3 in return) - I really appreciate it!

Stack v3.0…

2009-06-24T03:05:00.001+01:00

Yes you read that right. In going back to make sure Stack v2.2 would work properly on 3.0, I had a horrid idea… A couple hours later, and I'd got it working. And man is it awesome! On a whim, I'd rewritten Stack to actually be an icon in SpringBoard. It can be moved anywhere, has all the same positioning and reordering abilities as any other icon, it doesn't interfere with other apps, and is generally the cleanest and best way I could ever implement Stacks (yes, with an 's', there can be more than one now!). It took an awful lot of hacking around and programming blind to pull it off, but I think it's gonna work really well. I have no idea when I'll release it, but it will (likely) only be for iPhone 3.0 and above (running out of 2.x devices here to test against for compatibility!). Also please note that I'm now taking donations as an incentive for me to continue working on Stack (as long as I can), so if you have anything spare to give I graciously accept any amount! Here are various screenshots to just get you interested:

Stack v2.2 'release candidate' for iPhone 3.0

2009-06-22T21:30:00.001+01:00

I held Stack 2.2 (my final release) for the launch of 3.0 as it made sense to make sure it still ran on the newer firmware (as I won't be able to update it from now on). Without further ado, I direct you to my 'new' Stack website! http://www.steventroughtonsmith.com/stack/ Hope this helps out all those who've been missing Stack and/or yearning for the cool new stuff in version 2.2. IMPORTANT NOTES: • Should work on iPhone OS 2.0 all the way up to 3.0. • Has issues on 3.0 as regards showing on top of videos (there's a technical reason for this, they removed something I was checking for in 2.x which allowed me to fade out when not at SpringBoard. Will try and find a workaround for 3.0) • Is not available in Cydia. This is a Terminal-only install, for political reasons. Sorry if it makes things difficult. • This is still a prerelease binary - there are some bugs. Let me know about them in the usual ways (email, Twitter) • As always, any of those Extended Preferences-alike mods will likely prevent Stack from showing in Settings NEW IN STACK v2.2: • Custom positioning - drag the Stack to reposition it horizontally • Display mode: image (customizable), single-icon, or cascaded icons (3 icons) • Optional Item-removal prompt • Grid View theming (Grid View images are fully modifiable) • Much-improved performance and memory usage

Trading Card Games

2009-06-22T21:08:00.001+01:00

One thing I've learned during my life: people never grow up.

When I was young, Pokémon cards were all the rage, and that eventually turned to Magic: The Gathering in mid to late teens. Trading card games have naturally existed for many many years before that.

Today, it's the exact same with business cards. You go to conferences and events and try to trade as many as you can, to collect some in all sizes and colours. Nab yourself an Apple or Google business card and you're really proud of it. I'm pretty sure if people weren't too embarrassed to 'battle' their business card against others they would! I particularly liked the Realmac business cards (I wrangled one each out of Danny and Keith).

I must have been the only person at WWDC without business cards, so mid-week during the conference I decided to design myself a set I could order from Moo.

Today, they arrived! I'm really proud of them, being my first ever business cards, and I really enjoyed every bit of the design & ordering process with Moo. The Moo packaging is very nice too, with heavy duty holders.

I should also invest in some buttons, as quite a few people were sporting those too…

Tour of the Valley

2009-06-16T07:12:00.000+01:00

Had a crazy day today with Chris McClelland and Philip Strain touring all the cool places in Silicon Valley (Google, Apple, Yahoo and Palm). Eventually ended up at Stanford, Tapulous and the WWDC Meltdown meetup. Can't say much about it except it was *awesome* :-D Funniest part of the day was when we saw the Tapulous offices and Chris decided that we should go in… Several seconds of shocked silence and priceless looks ensued before we introduced ourselves.

WWDC+Palm Pre = Rollercoaster Week

2009-06-12T21:53:00.000+01:00

Haven't blogged in quite a while thanks to exams and whatnot, but this week I've been in San Francisco for Apple's World Wide Developers Conference with a sizable group of other Irish developers. And wow what a week it's been. Asides the obvious Apple awesomeness, there's been even more cool stuff happening: at Monday lunch time Symbian held an event in Jillians just across from Moscone West, where the first 100 attendees got a free Nokia 5800 Xpress Music and t-shirt (as well as food and drink!): Very nice move by Symbian I think; I would never have even bothered looking at Symbian even for making sure my websites run on it, but now with a free 'high-end' phone I have an excuse to do so. I'd also be really interested in writing S60 apps… except there's no Mac-native SDK. If Symbian actually wants to attract iPhone developers, as they seemed to at the event, then they better MAKE A MAC SDK! On Tuesday, I decided to be adventurous. I was able to buy a Palm Pre from a local Sprint Wireless store without activation or a contract (apparently I hear it's very hard to do? $602 including tax), so I instantly ran off back to my hotel room to see if I could A) hack the activation out of the OS, and B) get it working so I can develop apps for it and run them on device. Well, success :-) I gave up Tuesday eve because I couldn't get the device into restore mode no matter what I did, but on Wednesday morning I figured it out: you have to hold the volume-up button while the device is off before plugging it into USB, and from there you can use Palm's firmware flashers to do whatever you like with it. As the device can run unsigned firmware (!!!) I was easily able to hack out the activation check, and get up and running and enable the root shell. In that respect, I may just have the first jailbroken Pre in existence. I gotta say; this week at WWDC I've used my Pre more than my iPhone. It's not better than the iPhone in any respect, BUT it's as-good-as for most people. Everything 'just works', whether it be syncing with iTunes or even using the iPhone headset with the Pre. It's a fantastic device and OS, and I really wish Palm well with it. But man, for a hacker, the Pre is incredible. As mentioned, it runs unsigned firmware and has a root shell over USB when in developer mode (you can use the Konami cheat code to enable dev mode, too); you can do whatever the hell you like to the OS! The entire UI and all the apps are written in javascript, which in essence means the source code is available for you to modify at will, without recompiling anything. Even better, you can write C/C++ native Linux apps for it that draw directly to the framebuffer, as the recent Doom port shows. The specs are impressive, it's a ~600MHz ARM Cortex A8 with 256MB RAM with accelerometer, GPS, WiFi & Bluetooth, or, put another way, almost the exact same specs as the iPhone 3G S (bar the compass, afaik). After revealing my exploit of the device, I was invited to a small Palm meetup nearby where I got to chat with the actual WebOS engineers, thoroughly validating my efforts :-D Staying in San Francisco 'til Tuesday next, so hopefully I'll get some more free stuff somewhere (I'm *such* a student). This has seriously been the best week ever.

Lights Off - Ad 1

2009-03-26T13:13:00.000Z

Made a simple ad for Lights Off using the awesome Kinemac (part of the Macheist bundle). Check it out below in HD! Grab Lights Off on the App Store!

The Last Word - TodayFM

2009-03-23T17:33:00.000Z

I was invited on for a few minutes with Matt Cooper on TodayFM's Last Word last week, and the piece was broadcast last Thursday at 6.30. Topics include: • What's an 'iPhone App Developer' • What sort of apps I make • How I got into development • What's attractive about the iPhone • What's the attraction for people to download apps • How do I get applications on Apple's store • Apple Test Process • How hard is it to find apps • Pricing / Income • Is the iPhone the way of the future • Touched on iPhoneOS 3.0 announcement • Value for money • How difficult is it to write apps for iPhone

In a completely unrelated note, it appears I have 'won' the internet. All your base are belong to me? Thanks Andy Ihnatko!

Pre-iPhone 3.0

2009-03-17T03:01:00.000Z

We're about thirteen hours away from seeing the new iPhone 3.0 software, and excitement is running high. Lots of rumours are saying that Copy/Paste is a certainty. I think they're right. What else could iPhone 3.0 bring to current iPhones? Here's what I think: - A new SpringBoard? A SpringBoard redesign to better handle multiple applications would be nice; multiple categories of apps, with a shelf at the bottom and arrow buttons to navigate through the categories with animations similar to Time Machine. The usual Dock would be visible with a swipe on the center dot in the status bar, and is grown to accommodate two rows of icons. - Background Apps? Possible background apps, up to three; they 'minimize' to the shelf. Here's a Photoshop mockup of how I'd imagine 3.0 to look (drew this myself): - Copy/Paste? Kevin Rose seems to know his stuff; a doubletap on a word would bring up a roundrect loupe with quotation marks that you could drag around a selection and copy/cut. I think it will only work in certain applications, however. - Developer APIs? It would be nice to see a Maps API; although if there is one I'd be pretty sure it's not Google Maps and instead Apple's own renderings due to licensing. A Search API would be possible too, as would Core Data and Cocoa Bindings. There is definitely to be a digital compass in the next iPhone, according to whispers, so CoreLocation will sprout magnetometer support. - SDK? The iPhone 3.0 SDK will likely require Snow Leopard to run, especially if new language features like blocks and GCD come to 3.0. I'm guessing Apple will release a beta SDK for Leopard tomorrow, but only the beta SDKs will run on Leopard, not the final. - Codename? Hearing the word 'Kirkwood' bandied about a bit. Take that as you will… I'm really looking forward to seeing whether any of my wish list above comes true; I have St. Patrick's Day to worry about instead, but hopefully I'll be able to tune into Engadget's liveblog of the event.

Media Coverage

2009-03-12T20:31:00.000Z

I've been lax in blogging about my recent media coverage; ever so sorry! I've been in the Irish Independent and GadgetRepublic a couple of times thanks to the lovely Marie Boran. Check the links out: Playing to win big on the iTunes App Store App Store secrets: what they know that we don't In Programming Mode Also I might possibly be on TodayFM (100-102MHz) in the next couple days; I'm heading over to their recording studios tomorrow afternoon so that should be fun! In other news, I just redesigned my website so that it's a little more visual now. There are some issues with Internet Explorer (that I just haven't bothered to check out as I don't have a Windows machine), but it works great in Safari/Chrome/Firefox. Check it out if you get the chance!

Chalk - Bubble UI Mode

2009-03-11T19:49:00.000Z

I personally love iChat's bubbles; ever since it was first released I knew it was the only IM client for me. None of the others cut it! Similarly, on iPhone, there are only two Twitter clients I could ever stand using: Twinkle, and Tweetie. Both have bubbles in different forms as the default tweet style; presumably that is also a subconscious reason that makes me prefer those clients? From the start I planned a bubble mode in Chalk. In fact, the reason behind me making Chalk was to replace Twinkle on my iPhone, as Tapulous had just released the 1.3 update which virtually undid all the sweet UI design work Louie Mantia had done for Twinkle, losing me as a fan. Tweetie hadn't even been announced at the time, and the only other decent-looking alternative was Twitterrific, which I didn't like at all. I decided I might as well roll my own, so I'd have complete control over how it looks and works (funnily, I do that a lot…). I didn't think the iChat style was appropriate, as it gives the impression that this is an IM service, which Twitter is not (although some use it as such). Instead, I made it more similar to Twinkle; here's how it looks in the current build of Chalk: It's still a work-in-progress; I know some people won't like the orange but I would like to keep the branding and design coherent throughout the project (I'm using the same colours as the app icon). Remember, of course, that the bubble UI is optional - there is also the professional mode as seen in my previous blog post. Right now, thankfully, I've managed to get it running fast and smoothly with both visual styles. I'll keep you updated as I go along.

Announcing Chalk - a new Twitter client

2009-03-10T12:31:00.000Z

Last November I revealed that I was working on a Twitter client for Mac OS X and iPhone, then codenamed "TC" (Twitter Client). It's coming nearer to fruition now, and I have a final product name for it: "Chalk". I've been working hard on the art and style for the UI, and today I finalized the icon design. Like my other apps, I've kept it simple; it has a colour scheme reminiscent of the Twitter "fail whale", but more vibrant and lightning-y (to borrow a term from Pixar). Although it looks a bit more washed-out on the web here (due to the colour profile), believe me it looks awesome on the iPhone. I'm still working on the app user interface; I haven't finalized the design yet, and I'm experimenting between 'bubble' mode (a la Twinkle, or my previous blog post) and 'professional' mode, as seen below: I have only started the 'view tweet' mode, so for the time being I have just re-implemented it the way Tweetie (my favourite client!) does it, tweet-thread-following included, as those familiar with Tweetie will recognize. Please excuse its 'copycat' appearance while I redesign it: I'm trying not to pile on the features, instead making something that looks great and works well (it's lightning-fast too!), which means I'll also be able to finish it and share it with you as soon as possible!

Nuker v2.0 - new UI

2009-03-08T00:47:00.000Z

I spent this evening redesigning Nuker for its 2.0 release (used Louie Mantia's latest awesome work on Convert as inspiration). Firstly, I had to redesign the input mechanism. Apple do not supply a keyboard for inputting IP addresses, instead you must use the full keyboard. I went ahead and coded up my own, similar to what I'm planning for the Android version (as sliding open the keyboard on the G1 sucks bigtime). As an added usability bonus, you can now shake the iPhone to erase the IP address instead of using the delete key. Nice time saver that no-one will ever use! For those who aren't sure how it works, I've embedded a demo video of the app in action below. Remember that it only works against the original Windows XP release!

New Monitor - Dell S2209W

2009-03-04T20:13:00.001Z

Last weekend I decided to go and order myself a 'proper' monitor for my varying devices and design work instead of putting up with the ancient flat panel I'd been using for the past ten years. Looking around a bit, I found that Dell offered the 1920x1080 beasts that I desired; I wanted to have native HD instead of scaling it to 1920x1200. I went for their budget HD monitor, the S2209W (a 6-bit 21.5" widescreen). When I saw that it was only €185, I just had to go for it. Well it arrived today, and it's simply awesome! The screen quality is good, better than you'd expect for a 6-bit panel - it's hard to notice but you might see some dithering in static images. It's much lighter than I expected - all monitors I've handled up to now have been heavy, but this one is light as a feather in comparison. It doesn't include any special features, no USB, no HDMI, simply a standard VGA and DVI connector, supporting HDCP, naturally, so you can use it with PlayStation 3. The image quality is amazing due to the high pixel density; 1080p movies look really beautiful on it. I can't wait for Bolt's release to Blu-Ray, as I really want to watch it again on this. It's funny, having a HD monitor (or any HD screen) just makes me want to re-enjoy movies I've seen before, if I can find them in HD. It makes even the worst film ("White Chicks" anyone?) seem worth watching! ;-) All in all, I'm really happy with it. It may be a budget monitor, but it just feels great, and is certainly cheaper than Apple's 24".

Speed 1.1 - Update

2009-03-04T10:23:00.000Z

I'm planning a minor update to Speed at the moment, version 1.1. I've had a lot of feedback saying to bring back the leather stitching, which I'd removed to try and make the app design more cohesive (the app itself matched nicely with the icon), but if it's what you want I'll do it =) I'm also working on other bits and pieces, making the display more legible, and hopefully getting some improved artwork. I'm planning on including an option for warning when you pass a certain (settable) speed - I think I have a nice way of doing that that will not interfere with the streamlined look of the application. Also, just for those interested (aka rwillis3427), Speed v2.0 is planned for late June / early July (and will be dependent on the next version of the iPhone OS), and will be a free upgrade to all existing users of Speed. There's a lot going into the 2.0 release, so keep an eye out for sneak previews on Twitter every now and then. Here's an interim screenshot of Speed 1.1:

Apple Consumer Bonanza

2009-03-03T19:41:00.001Z

Today Apple introduced/refreshed seven products at once: • New iMac • New Mac mini • New Mac Pro • Updated MacBook Pro (speed bump) • New Apple Keyboard • New Airport Extreme • New Time Capsule I can't remember the last time so much was introduced at once, but the company is certainly not the Apple Computer of yore! Random notes: • The baseline iMac now has been demoted to an integrated graphics chip (although it is the acceptable nVidia 9400m) • The Mac Pro and high-end iMac are using the nVidia 9500 and 9600 graphics cards, rebranded the GTS 120 and GTS 130 • The Mac mini can now drive the 30" display (and is a powerful little machine!) • Mac Pro comes with 3GB RAM by default, with only €139 needed to upgrade to 6GB. Seems relatively cheap to me? • Disappointed the black+aluminium theme hasn't come to the Mac Pro or mini All throughout 2008 I was hoping to get the next Mac Pro refresh, but in the end I don't think I will; the graphics card is a generation behind already (I'd fancy a GTX280 in it, naturally) and the design is dated. It's also a lot more expensive than from when I priced my spec machine last year. Oh well =)

The 72 Hour Lights Off Sale!

2009-02-26T12:16:00.000Z

Update: SALE NOW ON! Now extended until Sunday! Starting tonight at midnight GMT (4PM PST), Lights Off will be available for 99¢ (79c) for a whole seventy two hours, ensuring that everyone who's been interested in checking it out but couldn't justify the price before can now do so! Here's a sample of user reactions from the iTunes App Stores worldwide: "This game is soo addictive :) if you're looking for a good timewaster, here's your game. It can drive you balistic, but also is a lot of fun. Great sound effects, great gameplay, what more could you want? Ps if you played the jailbroken version...this one pwns it :p" "It's an amazing game. Great graphics and sound. It keeps me entertained forever! Even my friends love it. I convinced my friend to buy it for her iPod Touch, and she hasn't stopped playing it. Great work Steve and Adam. " "Vraiment ce jeu est très addictif! Je le recommande à tout le monde! Bravo pour le design bien évidement c'est ce qui fait son charme! :)" "Lights off is a really slick version of the classic game. The overall polish is really what makes what would otherwise be a very simple app. Responsiveness is excellent and the beautiful graphics really set it apart. It would be nice if everything in the app store had this much attention paid to the details. " Don't take my word for it, go out and check Lights Off on the App Store - if you like what you see, make sure to grab Lights Off later today!

Free XNA Creators Club Trial License?? Count me in!

2009-02-25T21:41:00.000Z

Was reminded about Microsoft's DreamSpark recently, and suddenly realized that DCU students had full access to the DreamSpark programme. Even better, DreamSpark includes a one-year trial license to XNA with the ability to deploy my apps/games on my own Xbox! Signed up, downloaded Visual Studio '08 and the XNA suite, and set up my 360. All on the Windows 7 Beta - works perfectly so far (no crashes). Had never used Visual Studio or C# before; it's large and clunky, but having my code running on Xbox is worth it. Controller input had me stumped for a while (was too fast), but I figured out a throttling mechanism. A good eve's work! I had been semi-planning a HD version of Lights Off, for AppleTV. Now, fortunately I can evaluate Xbox and see if it's worth releasing the game through the Creator's Club. =)

I was on TV last night =)

2009-02-20T00:40:00.000Z

Fame at last? Not quite, but I was on the national news (RTÉ News on Two) on TV last night at ~11.15PM. Had a scare after the 9PM RTÉ News on One when I realized I'd been dropped, but fortunately they still ran with it on RTÉ2. I was interviewed by Laura Fletcher (and cameraman Paul!), which was basically my first time ever on the receiving end of a video camera. Scary stuff! It looks alright in the video, but I had a spotlight shining on me and could barely see a thing! Very intimidating, though Laura's constant smile helped offset that. As expected, I look a total prat on telly, but I'm really happy about how this went down. Going to have to turn off my phone for a few days so I won't be bombarded. =) Watch the full News program on the RTÉ website (http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0218/newsontwo_av.html) (RealPlayer required), or just my piece above in high quality on Vimeo. Slight Correction: I go to DCU, not DIT. Doh!

Stack 2.2 - Display Option - 'Image'

2009-02-17T13:13:00.001Z

The final display option in Stack 2.2 is 'image', which simply shows a resource image from the /Library/MobileStack folder when the Stack is empty. Since you can replace that image, you'll be able to customize the Stack exactly how you want it. Here's how it looks by default:

Stack 2.2 - Display Options!

2009-02-17T11:30:00.000Z

Coming new to Stack 2.2, the ability to have the Stack display as a single icon, cascaded icons, or an image (the image will be user-customizable, just replace the PNG on disk). There are only a couple more 2.2 features to go before it's releasable, so if you have any last-minute requests make them now! High Quality Video is on Vimeo, although as of right now it's still converting. Should be ready soon!

Stack 2.2 - Movable Stack!

2009-02-16T10:38:00.001Z

I think I've really excelled myself this time =) It's not finished, but I think it's a good representation of what the finished Stack 2.2 will look like. Check out the video! Basically you'll be able to drag the Stack to switch it to 'move' mode, then reposition it across the Dock and then tap anywhere on the main screen to confirm. What do you think? (Also proud of my home-made wiggle animation) High res video here!

Stack 2.2 - Item Removal

2009-02-16T07:19:00.000Z

In Stack 2.2 I've improved the removal of items with two minor features - now you must drag further to remove an item from the Stack (so less accidental removals), also there's an optional warning dialogue when removing an item. This allows you to cancel it if it wasn't intended.

Stack 2.2 - Grid View Theming

2009-02-13T17:19:00.001Z

Stack 2.2 includes a new Grid View, which, while prettier than before, is now more extensible than ever -> since the background is made up of nine PNG images, the Grid View can now be themed by any budding graphic artist. The dimensions are simple, and match Apple's existing dimensions for Stacks in Mac OS X Leopard (you can find the existing images at /System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/Resources): | 40x40 | 1x40 | 40x40 | | 40x1 | 1x1 | 40x1 | | 40x40 | 1x40 | 40x40 | And for the arrow image, it's 45x40. I'm only including one set of images in Stack v2.2, but if you can design your own you'll be able to use them (or release them on Cydia for others). Here are some screenshots of Grid View in Stack v2.2:

Stack Website Live

2009-02-09T04:32:00.000Z

Just finished up the Stack website, pretty basic right now but I'll be adding more to it soon enough!

Featured in the Irish Times - Part 2!

2009-01-30T19:24:00.000Z

Managed to get a proper scanned copy of the article so you can see it as intended, and I also managed to take a one-in-a-million shot with my iPhone on the bus home - neat! (As you can see, the article was pretty big)

Featured in the Irish Times

2009-01-30T12:41:00.000Z

The Irish Times (our national newspaper) have a well-written article about me in today's edition, with a great photograph. =)

Lights Off now up on the App Store!

2009-01-22T19:43:00.000Z

Grab it now!