The last couple of weeks I have been mystified. My iPad doesn’t have GPS but it always knows where I am down to a couple of meters. I know that Apple has been using WiFi based geo-location already in the iPhone but I just couldn’t explain how my private hotspot and my friend’s down the street or even the one at my office could have ended up in Apple’s database.
The only explanation I could come up with was that Apple had used my iPhone’s GPS to gather geo coordinates for all WiFi hotspots I came close to. That sounded too scary and conspiratory-theory like to really contemplate.
And then I read this: >> more…
I admit it. I had to get it and I did.
Now I have this shiny (more on that later), magical and revolutionary device sitting on my desk.
And here is the answer to the most asked question of the last week “how do you like it?”
I like it a lot, but I am still searching for a proper place for it in my life.I have my laptops (yes, two: one MacBook Air for iPhone coding and one Lenovo X60 for real work – I couldn’t function without Office 2007), one of them typically is within easy reach. On the road I have my iPhone which does pretty much all I want to do on the road. >> more…
Wondering why some svn commands I read in this book won’t work on my mac, I found out that I still have version 1.4.4 installed.
Wanting to get a newer version, I read an instruction saying “you’ll need MacPorts and therefore first install XCode and then…” – but I was pretty sure that wasn’t the best way. Having to install two programms just to get the newest subversion? However, as I’m still rather new to this “prorgamming on a mac” thing, I needed a little help from a friend to figure out an easier way:
1. download the binaries at http://www.open.collab.net/downloads/community/
2. doubleclick, install
3. add /opt/subversion/ to the path (do something like echo ‘export PATH=/opt/subversion/bin:$PATH’ >>./bash_profile in the Terminal) >> more…
I’m using the Google Toolbox for Mac extensions to unit test my iPhone application. I highly recommend them. Integration with XCode is great. E.g. failing assertions in the tests are flagged directly in the code just like compile-time errors right next to the failing assertion. (If you are working on SDK 3.0 beta, you should get this patch to avoid the “-[UIApplication terminate]: unrecognized selector sent to instance” exception when the unit test application quits. terminate was replaced with terminateWithSuccess ins SKD 3.0). >> more…
Designing great applications really is about putting yourself in the shoes of your users.
Here is another neat example of a team going the extra mile. What happens if I lose my mobile phone connection in the middle of a call (e.g. while passing through a tunnel)? With my Palm Treo I would just end up on the home screen, having to got to recent calls to dial the number. >> more…
The internet has a profound impact on software. Even on software that is locally installed on a device (in this case the iPhone)
Here are the guidelines that Apple gives to their ISVs how often to update their applications.
(c) Apple Inc.
Apple recently announced the next major version of their operation system, called “Snow Leopard”. The interesting thing about it is, that it doesn’t introduce new features, but only changes the technology behind. And it looks like Apple expects people to pay for this. I hope this sets a precedent, like many other innovations from Apple before: Give the developers the time (a whole year!) to improve the technology. And then start to add new things again.
