Apple

Really cool tool to view source code on the iPhone / iPad

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Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
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Have you ever wanted to dig into your web pages on your mobile devices and don't have the capabilities to view source code or poke around? Snoopy is a bookmarklet for snooping on web pages. It's intended for use on mobile browsers like the iPod, iPhone, and iPad Mobile Safari where you can't view-source to poke around under the hood of sites to see how they're built.

Using the bookmarklet will give you an overlay that shows you information such as what Doctype the page has, what JS libraries are used in the page, what analytics, etc. It also gives you the ability to view the raw and/or generated source of the page.

Check the project out at http://snoopy.allmarkedup.com

How to add images to your iPhone Simulator

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Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
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I have been developing an iPhone application tonight and had to create an image selector. The simulator told me I can add images through iTunes, so I opened iTunes but there wasn't anything obvious.

So the next thing I tried was drag an image into the simulator and walla!

Some really easy instructions to adding images to your simulator.

  1. Have your simulator open.
  2. Drag an image into the simulator.
  3. iPhone Safari will start and it will open the image you have dragged onto the simulator. Click and hold down on the image until a menu appears.
  4. Click 'Save Image' and your done.

Any further tips for working with the simulator, just ask me.

SoundMan Installs An iPad As An In-Car Entertainment System

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Wednesday, April 21st, 2010
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It didn't take long, only a matter of hours, for Apple's new iPad to find it's way into a car.

A US car audio company, SoundMan have become the first to install the iPad into a car dashboard. As soon as the iPad was launched, the SoundMan team moved quickly to install it into a Toyota Tacoma Pick-Up truck.

I've been thinking of installing a media centre into my own car, but after watching this I'm having thoughts of simply installing an iPad.

iPad’s Default Applications

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Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
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The iPad is close to release with less than 1 month to go. So you might be asking, what applications are available with the iPad by default?

There are 13 applications available by default which have been optimised and enhanced specifically for the iPad. iBooks is a new application for the iPad but the following have been removed when compared to the iPhone:-

  • Stocks
  • Calculator
  • Clock
  • Weather
  • Voice Memos

I understand why the Clock and Voice Memos iPad application may have been skipped as they would be very difficult to create an interface to suit the size of the iPad. Do you just create a bigger clock? No, of course not. I don't understand why they couldn't come up with the idea of a world map showing analogue clocks in different timezones, wouldn't that be efficient for the iPad.

Whilst people consider this to be a small utility, you wait until the calculator is not available whilst you have the iPad in your hands. We have been promised these missing iPad applications will be available on the iTunes store so hopefully this is true.

Will have to check with the staff down at my local Brisbane Apple Store.

Forbidden Issues with Apache2 on Mac Snow Leopard (10.6)

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Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
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There's a common issue people are experiencing when they upgrade their Mac to Snow Leopard (10.6) with forbidden issues whilst accessing websites created through Apache's virtual hosts. The problem is simple, the new httpd.conf file in Snow Leopard is a bit more strict, and so it should be, simply follow the steps below to fix the problem.

Assuming you have Apache2 running and you have your vhost file setup and working. Open your vhost file and make the following modifications:

  1. sudo vi /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Opens your httpd-vhosts.conf file with vi

  1.    <Directory /path/to/your/website>
  2.       Options FollowSymLinks
  3.       AllowOverride All
  4.       Order Allow,Deny
  5.       Allow from all
  6.    </Directory>

Add the block above within your tags, save the file, and restart apache (sudo apachectl restart).

That's it, you simply need to tell Apache to allow access from all. If you want to secure this further you may Allow from your own computer only (127.0.0.1).

The iPhone has no Flash capabilities but why?

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Sunday, October 5th, 2008
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At the moment, Adobe are making a Flash plugin for the Apple iPhone with their belief that if they make it good enough, Apple will publish it. Unfortunately for Adobe and the rest of the world, the likely hood of Flash being available on the iPhone will be very slim.

To begin with, the applications that are available to download through Apple's iPhone App Store are making millions of dollars for Apple and a little for the developers making the applications. If Flash was available on the iPhone, it would be able to avoid the whole App Store process and developers can sell their applications themselves and receive 100% of the sales.

There would be very little chance of the iPhone ever having Flash available unless there is another phone that is taking a substantial amount of the iPhone sales away, and of course this phone runs Flash. In my own point of view of the iPhone, the only 'wow' factor is the interface which has been replicated on Windows Mobile phones already.

The iPhone has a lot of restrictions and I believe it is only popular because of Apple's Marketing strategies, and the popularity they gain with younger audiences. I have an iMate JasJam which has more features then the iPhone and it's nearly 2 years old, so I'm expecting more features will be available in the latest models which puts the iPhone lower on the features list.

Walt Mossberg’s review of the iPhone

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Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

Walt Mossberg's review of the iPhone

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Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

Apple’s 10 new features of their upcoming operating system.

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Sunday, June 17th, 2007

Desktop
The desktop wasn’t changed to any great degree, for good reasons because it works and we’re happy with it. The desktop has the following changes:-

  • New Menu Bar
  • Improved Dock
  • Stacks – clean up desktop
  • Consistent window look
  • Prominent active window

New Finder

  • New Sidebar
  • Search other Macs & Servers
  • Easier sharing of files/folders
  • Back to my Mac – Internet networking
  • Cover Flow – view the cover of each file like a slide show

Quick Look

  • Live file preview – preview a file without opening its application
  • Works with text files, images, movies, PDF, Word, Excel, and more
  • Plug-in model – if your file is not supported you can easily add it in
  • Full-screen previews

64 Bit

  • 64-bit from top to bottom
  • 64-bit goes mainstream – it will run 32-bit and 64-bit simultaneously – only one version of Leopard (no 32-bit and 64-bit versions – just a 64-bit version)

Core Animation

  • Developers will be able to make more intuitive applications
  • Items such as text, 2D graphics, OpenGL renderings, and video are placed on thousands of layers – when content changes so does the visual
  • Supports multi-core processors
  • Developers can create animations automatically that can react to user input

Boot Camp

  • Now built into Leopard
  • Runs Windows XP and Vista at Native Speed
  • Completely compatible
  • No CD burning to install drivers

Spaces

  • Group applications into separate spaces
  • Instantly switch between Spaces
  • Easily move applications between spaces
  • Bird’s eye view of all Spaces

Dashboard

  • Over 3000 widgets now available
  • Cool movie widget included with Leopard
  • WebClip – easily make your own widgets through Safari, you really have to see this feature in action – you can grab a component off any site and make it a widget (so when the website updates, your widget will update with just that component)

iChat

  • Better audio quality with AAC-LD
  • Tabbed chats
  • Photo Booth effects
  • iChat Theatre – show your desktop or applications through iChat (will make Video Conferencing very easy)
  • Backdrops – change your backgrounds without the need of a blue/green screen on the fly

Time Machine (Backup)

  • One click set-up
  • Automatically backs up everything
  • Backup to a local hard drive or network server
  • Search for lost files – this feature works really well, another feature you need to see in action to get an understanding of how well it really works
  • Preview previous files with Quick Look

The pricing for Apple’s Leopard is US$129! With no different versions (no basic, no ultimate), everything is included in the US$129 version.

Apple is looking very promising as a gaming platform!

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Sunday, June 17th, 2007

Big gaming companies like EA Games and id Technology are going to start supporting Apple simultaneously to PC. Which is very good news for Apple as gamers are moving away from Microsoft Windows to other operating systems to get better performance out of their games.

EA Games will be releasing Command & Conquer 3, Battlefield 2142, Need for Speed Carbon, and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for Apple. EA Games gave a demo of the Harry Potter games during the WWDC07 conference, visuals/graphics were exceptional and I can see good potentials for Apple as a gaming platform.

EA Games will also be releasing all of their sporting games starting in August to support both Apple and PC, games such as Madden and Tiger Woods PGA Tour.