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Dimitri Stancioff questions the lack of utility apps (Weather, Stocks, etc.) in the iPad demos and raises the possibility of a secret “Dashboard” app.
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iPhone Development: Greatly Exaggerated:
Jeff brings many of Jon Casasanta’s points down to earth and discovers that, like Mark Twain’s hero, rumours of the death of Mac software have been greatly exaggerated.
Jeff’s main point—the same which leapt immediately to my own mind—is that the most interesting new developer technology is on the Macintosh, not the iPhone. Sure, the iPhone has a more modern user interface setup, all built on top of CoreAnimation for you. That’s just about the limit of it however: the Mac has multi-touch events (NSTouch, anyone?) just like the iPhone, CoreAnimation itself is there, and so much more.
Garbage collection, blocks, and Grand Central Dispatch are all Mac-only (although hopefully the last couple will make an appearance in iPhone OS 4.0? Please?). These are fantastic technologies to play with, and pretty much swung me away from the iPhone. In fact, they’re so important and interesting in so many ways that my forthcoming book, Pro Objective-C for Mac and iPhone, has dramatically more content appropriate to a Macintosh desktop developer than an iPhone developer. There’s just so much more to work with on the Macintosh, even when considering only the Foundation Kit and the runtime.
I don’t doubt that these technologies are going to be made available on the iPhone platform sooner or later; in fact I think it’s inevitable. But they’ll almost always appear on the Macintosh first, so the good Macintosh programmers will be getting the good jobs. Just look at me and Kobo; I didn’t get my position there because I was an iPhone programmer— I got it because I’ve been a Macintosh programmer for many years; I know where the iPhone is now, and I know where it’s likely to be in a few years’ time. So does any Macintosh desktop programmer worth his salt.
So to Jon, Phill and co: as much as you love the iPhone, you ignore the Macintosh at your peril. You owe it to yourselves to learn and work with the newest Macintosh APIs and technologies now, or you’ll be playing catch-up to desktop developers who’ve been refining their arts for a couple of years yet…
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10 Beautiful Elegant Replacement Docks for your Mac (via beautifulpixels)
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Pro Objective-C for Mac and iPhone: I just noticed that my name has been officially added to the details of this forthcoming book from Apress. Very excited by this turn of events— suddenly I feel all legitimate. And on-the-hook. For those wondering about the book’s history: it was originally started by Mike Ash of Rogue Amoeba, but was handed off to me after he chose to spend more time with his actual life (I don’t have one of these, and therefore am able to spend time writing books). Mike turned out a good few chapters himself, and I’ve stepped in to handle the remaining chapters, drafts, etc. Most of the final content will be written by me, but I can’t be thankful enough for having someone with Mike’s impressive pedigree to point me in the right direction. I’m not certain when the book is expected to be released just yet (March 2010-ish maybe?) but those who’ve asked me about early access could do a lot worse than to check out the book on Apress.com via the link above. They do alpha/beta releases of their books, and while I’ve no idea what’s planned for this one, that’s where you’ll find out.
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Panic has a new page where you can sign up for a chance to be randomly chosen as a beta tester. First up - Transmit. /via chrisbowler I’m in.
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Here, File File! is an upcoming iPhone app which lets you access your Mac’s files from wherever you are. It’s a great idea and the UI looks promising as well.
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Google Chrome beta for Mac is now available. I’ve been using the developer preview for a month or so, and I can testify: this thing is fast. And considering it includes the Web Inspector we all know and love, it’s not a bad development browser, either.
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“We’re all in, baby. Go big or get the hell out.”
- Rudy Pedraza, founding partner of Mac-clone developers, Psystar -
“The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.”
- John C. Dvorak, Feb. 19 1984 -
The Apple Tablet OS & User Experience:
Mike Rundle covers a variety of the usability concerns revolving around Apple’s rumored tablet device. The article includes a comprehensive summary of different OS approaches the device could take, as well as some of the general user experience questions it raises, like keyboard input and viewing angle.
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“The real problem is how Apple’s portfolio of expensive gear — particularly notebooks — will fare as the recession starts to bite.”
- Brian Caulfield, Forbes Apple’s Real Problem: Netbooks (via Daring Fireball: Apple Netbook Claim Chowder) -
Steve Ballmer unveils Windows 7 on NBC’s Today Show with a Macbook Pro in the background.
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Disassembled Magic Mouse (via mxvltr) — just ordered mine (assembled…) this morning.
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The Apple Magic Mouse is the world’s first Multi-Touch mouse—meaning, in addition to detecting left and right clicks, the device also accepts an array of finger gestures on it’s surface, for features like 360° scrolling, zooming, and page navigation. The new mouse works wirelessly with any Bluetooth-enabled computer and features a powerful laser-tracking engine. I personally found the previous wireless Mighty Mouse a disappointment—in tracking response and weight—here’s hoping this one delivers.
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Rock star mac/iPhone developer Atebits has finally released information on the forthcoming Tweetie 2 for both iPhone and Mac. Tweetie 2 contains a ton of new features, including full data persistence and offline mode, drafts manager, contact integration, MapKit integration, a completely revamped draft screen, native integration for a ton of external services, the ability to post video and add multiple attachments to a tweet, improved gesture shortcuts, and much more. Whew. Tweetie 1 is already far and away my favorite Twitter client for both platforms — needless to say, I’ll be downloading both of these updates as soon as they’re available.