Iphone Updates

“Since it opened 10 months ago,” reports Dow Jones’ Ben Charny (smartmoney.com), ”the App Store has been a runaway hit selling a host of software that turn the smartphone into everything from a carpenter’s level to a virtual change purse.” Showing “no sign of letting up,” the success of the App Store has made Apple “‘the platform of choice‘ in the consumer smartphone area,” according to Gartner analyst Mike McGuire.

The Mac is energy efficient by design, but you can help conserve even more energy by taking advantage of Energy Saver options. Using the Sleep pane, for example, you can set the Display to sleep after your Mac has been inactive for a specific amount of time. But don’t make your Mac wait to get some sleep. Find out how to team Energy Saver with Exposé to put your Mac to sleep immediately.

When Forrester Research released the results of its annual survey on customer satisfaction, says Jim Dalrymple (macworld.com), “Apple not only topped the list, it blew away the competition.” In fact, Apple “dominated in each category” that the survey assessed, “scoring 82 percent (Useful), 86 percent (Easy to Use), and 72 percent (Enjoyable).”

Next Wednesday, you can celebrate Earth Day 2009 by watching Earth, which opens on April 22. Narrated by James Earl Jones and directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the team who produced the Academy Award–winning Planet Earth, the first film in the Disneynature series offers incredible cinematography as it follows three animal families over the course of a year. Enjoy.

Mountain Gorillas have fascinated us since the earliest days of the 20th century. And that was well before we knew that they were our closest genetic relative on Earth, sharing close to 99% of our DNA. Now, thanks to iTunes U and Open University, you can learn all about the Mountain Gorillas still surviving in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.

Filed under: Features, How-tos, Developer, iPhone, iPod touch

In the last iPhone Dev 101 post, I told you a little about creating your first project using Xcode; however, in this post, I want to show you how to create your first application that will run in the iPhone simulator. In honor of staying with the classic way of teaching programming, we’ll create a “Hello World!” application as our first one.

Creating the new project
If you have installed the iPhone SDK/Xcode, then you can launch Xcode by navigating to /Developer/Applications. Once there, you can double click on the Xcode application (you may also find it handy to just drag the icon to the dock if you will be using it a lot).

Once Xcode launches, click File > New Project. Under the iPhone OS section on the left side of the resulting window, select “Application.” Select “View-based Application” from the templates that show up on the right side, and then click the “Choose” button. You will then be prompted to specify a project save name — this will also be the name of your resulting application, so choose your project name wisely.

You’re project has now been created, and the Xcode window that is displayed will contain all of your code, resources, etc. There isn’t much there now, but the application is fully functional at this point. You can click the “Build & Go” button in the toolbar, and the application will be compiled and launched in the iPhone Simulator. Again, this is a fully functional application, but it doesn’t do anything useful at this point — the usefulness of the app is up to your coding, but Apple supplies you with the base code and dependencies.

Continue reading iPhone Dev 101: The “Hello World!” app

TUAWiPhone Dev 101: The “Hello World!” app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You don’t have to be a journalism student to enjoy — or benefit from — Roy’s Writing Tools. Brought to us by the Poynter Institute and Roy Peter Clark, Roy’s Writing Tools delivers one enjoyable, instructive, and short writing lesson after another. They explain why you should use active verbs and when you should embrace the passive voice. Why should you vary the length of your paragraphs?

The wait is almost over. Next week, Star Trek comes to theaters throughout the U.S. Directed by J.J. Abrams, the eleventh film in the celebrated Star Trek franchise, introduces us to characters we all know well — James T. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov — but in their early years with Starfleet. To prep for your mission, you’ll find trailers, TV spots, and film clips on the movie trailers site. And a phaser, too. Enjoy.

An alum of the Missouri School of Journalism, Zach Honig (appscout.com) was pleased to learn that his alma mater was hosting an iPhone app design competition. Seventy student teams vied for the yet-to-be-awarded top prize, and at least two of the apps created during the competition — NearBuy and Newsflash — have already appeared on the App Store. And earned rave reviews.

The results are in. And in its 2009 Wireless Consumer Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study, J.D. Power and Associates reports that “Apple ranks highest among smartphone manufacturers with a score of 791 on a 1,000-point scale, performing particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design.”

Smule calls their latest iPhone app “an instrument, a game, and a huge global social experience.” Most App Store reviewers simply call it “addictive.” And give it 5 stars. Like Ocarina, Leaf Trombone lets you turn iPhone or iPod touch into a musical instrument; this time, a trombone. But Leaf Trombone also lets you play for — and get instant reviews from — a global audience of fellow Leaf Trombone players. Ready to take the world stage?

At Doylestown Hospital, doctors don’t have to carry charts anymore. Instead, they carry an iPhone and enjoy secure, 24/7 access to patient records, including vital signs, medications, lab results, allergies, nurses’ notes, and therapy results. When with a patient, they can tap the iPhone screen, launch a program like Epocrates, and use it to help explain diseases, interpret lab results, or check on drug interactions.

“Mac mini–crazed,” Julio Ojeda-Zapata (twincities.com) “couldn’t be happier” with the “interesting uses” he has found for the new Mac mini. “Because it is so inexpensive,” Ojeda-Zapata found it a “compelling option” as a “mainstream Mac.” But the diminutive Mac mini “blew my mind” when he paired it with a 52-inch LCD. That’s when he realized why so many “Mac types have embraced the Mac Mini as the ultimate media center.”

If you can’t get to this year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, you can at least enjoy trailers for a selection of the films that will be seen at the annual celebration of independent filmmaking. They includes the latest work from such directors as Atom Egoyan, Spike Lee, Carlos Cuaron, and other new and well-known filmmakers.

In his History of Jazz program, Dr. Gordon Vernick, Associate Professor of Music at Georgia State University looks at just one year in the rich history of this uniquely American musical genre. But Vernick sees 1959 as a “nexus point,” the year he “likes to think about as the most important year in jazz.” What occurred in 1959 to make it such a milestone for jazz music?

If you’re looking forward to the newest film in the X-Men series, you have only a week to wait. Opening on May 1, X-Men Origins: Wolverine — a prequel to the rest of the films in the series — focuses on Logan, the character, played by Hugh Jackman, who becomes Wolverine. On the Movie Trailers site, you’ll find an exclusive clip from the film, two trailers, and (coming soon) the Wolverine Weapons App.

Just nine months after the revolutionary App Store opened, Apple today announced, Connor Mulcahey, a thirteen year old from Weston, CT, downloaded the one billionth app. By downloading Bump, a free contact swapping app created by Bump Technologies, the teenager became the grand prize winner of Apple’s one billion app countdown contest and will receive a $10,000 iTunes gift card, an iPod touch, a Time Capsule, and a MacBook Pro.

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, App Review

I’m never very organized when I travel. I usually pay the price too, with panicked runs to the store when I reach my destination. Toothpaste, ties, batteries, you name it, I’ve had to buy it on the road. I’ve never been one for making huge lists, but Packing Pro [App Store link] may just change that.

This $3.99US app runs on the iPhone and the iPod Touch. It forces you to organize BEFORE you leave, and will certainly cut down on trip related disasters brought about by little or poor planning. The app starts you out with either a way to create your own lists, or better still, gives you some templates to add to or delete from. They are incredibly detailed, (i.e. sewing kit, set email auto-responder) and there are templates for out of country travel, or just quick trips. If you are not traveling alone, you can specify how many are going, their gender and whether they are adults or children. You can specify expected weather, to help you select clothing and accessories. The templates really reduce the typing, and the information is very, very detailed.

I’d like to see some additions to this app. The free Travelocity TravelTools [App Store link] app includes flight schedules, wait times and airport delays, gate information etc. It would be great to see that all integrated into this app. And Tripit, [App Store link] which my colleague Steven Sande reviewed earlier this month is a very innovative travel organizer, but it doesn’t really do the packing part. An app with all these features combined would be the ultimate travel app, but it might be pretty large. Blue sky request. Get destination weather and flight schedules, and adjust my packed items depending on weather forecasts. I know that these changes would take this app out of the ‘packing’ realm, but it would be a really cool app I’d want.

If your packing is not so ambitious, take a look at Packing [App Store link], a cut down version of the app for $0.99US which has less depth but still lots options that will satisfy many travelers.

Packing Pro fills a unique niche and it’s another one of those apps that continues to make the iPhone so different from the rest. If you travel, and always wind up on a mad dash to the pharmacy, or convenience store, this app is for you.

Here are some screen shots:

TUAWPack like a pro with your iPhone originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Rumors, iPhone

If USA Today says it, it must be truthy — hence the enthusiasm for today’s report that sources close to the discussions are confirming an ongoing confab between Apple and Verizon on the topic of bringing everyone’s favorite smartphone to America’s most popular cell carrier. The future prospect of a Verizon iPhone, originally rumored and countermanded for this year, has perked up the ears of AT&T naysayers around the USA.

Although the paper cites Verizon’s CDMA network as the target for the iPhone deployment option, most other observers (including Verizon executives) have noted the upcoming LTE/4G network, built atop the GSM standard that the iPhone already knows and loves, as the likely deployment environment. Robert swooned over the possibility of an LTE-enabled iPhone back in February; of course, way back in 2007, Verizon’s attitude towards Apple’s phone was far less conciliatory.

Even though AT&T is eager to hold onto its exclusive deal for iPhone in the US as long as it can — and there’s plenty of financial motivation already — there’s enough meat to this report to make me believe that Verizon-Apple negotiations are more than a stick to push the incumbent carrier toward a better deal. Getting earlier access to LTE (AT&T’s buildout is at least a year behind VZW’s) and more domestic options for the phone would be a win for Apple, as would a more generous revenue sharing plan with AT&T.

What’s not clear to me is the percentage of would-be iPhone buyers who have so far avoided the phone because of carrier exclusivity and the two-year contract requirement. If having Verizon as a choice would flip you from the ‘no’ to the ‘heck yeah’ column, pipe up.

Update: Just discussed the Verizon rumors with Randall on TechVi.

TUAWMore rumors on the Verizon-iPhone front originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Cool tools, Productivity

I want to make a quick mention regarding one of the most useful utilities I’ve found in recent days: SizeUp. It allows you to resize and reposition windows using keyboard shortcuts. It’s no secret that I like my screen real estate, and making the most of it is a big deal to me. You can sit and resize windows all day, but I’d rather hit a couple of keys and have everything in place.

SizeUp offers half-screen (vertical or horizontal) and quarter-screen sizing (easily positionable in any corner), as well as a true Windows-style maximize function. You can also set a custom size for the “Center Window” option, which resizes the window to the specified dimensions and positions it in the center of its current screen. Not the screen you want? The last set of shortcuts lets you jump the window between existing monitors in your setup.

The hotkeys are configurable, but the defaults (surprisingly) didn’t conflict with any of my extensive collection of shortcut combinations. SizeUp is shareware, but you can pay what you think it’s worth (Fair licensing). A suggested price of $9.99US doesn’t seem at all unreasonable to me. If it’s useful to you, but not that useful, a minimum donation of $2.99US is requested. The maximize function alone is worth that. Developers Irradiated Software also offer a “lite” version called TwoUp which can do the split screen trick on its own, free. Grab a fully-functioning demo of SizeUp at the Irradiated Software website.

TUAWCorral your desktop windows with SizeUp originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Software, Developer

I had to do some extensive testing before I got too excited, but after a conversation with the developers I’m pleased to announce that ExpanDrive 2.0 is out. We’ve mentioned it before, but to recap: ExpanDrive allows you to mount remote servers as drives directly accessible in Finder. With a completely rewritten (again) SFTP layer, the existing FTP support and new Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Solution) support, it’s even more useful than the last time we mentioned it. One of the developers, Jeff Mancuso, mentioned to me back at the last WWDC that the S3 support was in the works; it’s great to see it come to fruition.

In my testing, I found that a previously-existing S3 option, JungleDisk, can cause conflicts with ExpanDrive’s S3 support. JungleDisk users should note that there are some issues, but they seem to clear up if you create vanilla buckets in your account and use those with ExpanDrive. I personally found that I was willing to give up JungleDisk entirely at this point, preferring this direct-mount with all of the perks, including a contextual menu in Finder for quickly setting public read/write permissions.

I can attest to the fact that it’s faster, and that the S3 support is working (wonderfully, without JungleDisk). ExpanDrive 2.0 is a $39.95 purchase (well worth it if you deal with remote UNIX systems or S3), and a $19.95 upgrade for existing users. There’s a free trial available.

TUAWExpanDrive 2.0 expands to Amazon S3 originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, in announcing the company’s March quarter financial results. In its fiscal 2009 second quarter, Apple posted revenue of $8.16 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. Gross margin was 36.4 percent, up from 32.9 percent in the year-ago quarter.

“The App Store — stocked with 15,000 titles — is on tap to move its 1 billionth application any day now,” reports Jefferson Graham (usatoday.com). And it’s applications from relatively small developers, like Smule, that have created such entertaining apps as Ocarina (one of the best-selling apps on the App Store) and Leaf Trombone (a newcomer to the Store) that are leading the way.

In theaters on Earth Day 2010, Oceans invites us to journey beneath the waves to glimpse the wild and untamed world that few get to see. The Disneynature film tells the story of the perils and uncertain future the inhabitants of this world face while at the same time showing us the bright future that could occur if we’re willing to change the way we treat the world’s oceans.

Now you can enjoy the environmental friendly book from Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas Kostigen on your iPhone. And save a few more trees in the process. The digital version of the New York Times Bestseller “is full of green living tips and each section is accessible through the table of contents.” If you’d like to see more app options for Earth Day, pay a visit to the Green Room.

Eager to hear new tracks from the Dave Matthews Band? Subscribe to the iTunes Pass for Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King, and the hot single, Funny the Way It Is, will download immediately. The rest of the band’s eagerly anticipated eighth studio album will download as soon as it becomes available. And until the pass expires this September, you’ll receive bonus studio tracks, live tracks, and more.

“Since it opened 10 months ago,” reports Dow Jones’ Ben Charny (smartmoney.com), ”the App Store has been a runaway hit selling a host of software that turn the smartphone into everything from a carpenter’s level to a virtual change purse.” Showing “no sign of letting up,” the success of the App Store has made Apple “‘the platform of choice‘ in the consumer smartphone area,” according to Gartner analyst Mike McGuire.

The Mac is energy efficient by design, but you can help conserve even more energy by taking advantage of Energy Saver options. Using the Sleep pane, for example, you can set the Display to sleep after your Mac has been inactive for a specific amount of time. But don’t make your Mac wait to get some sleep. Find out how to team Energy Saver with Exposé to put your Mac to sleep immediately.

When Forrester Research released the results of its annual survey on customer satisfaction, says Jim Dalrymple (macworld.com), “Apple not only topped the list, it blew away the competition.” In fact, Apple “dominated in each category” that the survey assessed, “scoring 82 percent (Useful), 86 percent (Easy to Use), and 72 percent (Enjoyable).”

Next Wednesday, you can celebrate Earth Day 2009 by watching Earth, which opens on April 22. Narrated by James Earl Jones and directed by Alastair Fothergill and Mark Linfield, the team who produced the Academy Award–winning Planet Earth, the first film in the Disneynature series offers incredible cinematography as it follows three animal families over the course of a year. Enjoy.

Mountain Gorillas have fascinated us since the earliest days of the 20th century. And that was well before we knew that they were our closest genetic relative on Earth, sharing close to 99% of our DNA. Now, thanks to iTunes U and Open University, you can learn all about the Mountain Gorillas still surviving in the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda.

Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

SlingMedia thinks so. In a brief note on the Sling website, the company notes: “We are in close contact with our partners at Apple and are optimistic that it will be approved soon. We hope the wait won’t be much longer.”

Hopefully the company knows something the pundits and rumor mongers don’t. It’s been a month of excitement followed by depression as lightly-sourced rumors spread that Apple would turn down the highly anticipated app at the request of AT&T, who worried about all the bandwidth the app would use. There was even a change in the AT&T Terms of Service, that the company later disowned and apologized for.

Of course other phones sold by AT&T and other carriers do offer the SlingPlayer Mobile app, but no other single phone has the footprint that the iPhone has.

There have also been rumors that the app might support WiFi only, which would be a tremendous downer for people who expected to be able to Sling away from just about anywhere. Hopefully, this whole soap opera is drawing to a close, but Sling fans shouldn’t throw away their torches and pitchforks just yet.

Thanks to Matt for the tip.

TUAWSlingPlayer for iPhone getting closer to release? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 00:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You don’t have to be a journalism student to enjoy — or benefit from — Roy’s Writing Tools. Brought to us by the Poynter Institute and Roy Peter Clark, Roy’s Writing Tools delivers one enjoyable, instructive, and short writing lesson after another. They explain why you should use active verbs and when you should embrace the passive voice. Why should you vary the length of your paragraphs?

The wait is almost over. Next week, Star Trek comes to theaters throughout the U.S. Directed by J.J. Abrams, the eleventh film in the celebrated Star Trek franchise, introduces us to characters we all know well — James T. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov — but in their early years with Starfleet. To prep for your mission, you’ll find trailers, TV spots, and film clips on the movie trailers site. And a phaser, too. Enjoy.