David Pogue article on Windows 8 from The New York Times. I agree with this so much. They should have split the OS into a Desktop/Tablet variant like Windows 7, for mice and keyboard use, and had a ‘metro’ new UI version for tablets and phones. The hybrid model is too much of a compromise.
Just watched the New York Windows 8 launch event video. It does look like a great stride forward for Microsoft. I think iOS is better choice for consumers, but it’d be hard to be really annoyed about using Windows 8 if forced via work or for other reasons. With the new UI of course. The Windows 7 style desktop is a daft idea for mobile devices. They should have split the OS UI across devices, with core technology on both and had the ability to run new UI apps on desktops/laptops in another Windows 7 style window.
Who’s planning on going all in on Windows 8? Let me know on Twitter or App.Net I’m happy in the Apple ecosystem myself. Will use Windows 8 VM when in office (cant ditch Windows 7 until remote access VPN and Anti-virus supports Windows 8) with Office 2013 apps.
Typed and posted from my iPad 🙂
Amazon holding press event on September 6th: new Kindles on the way? http://j.mp/R4joE1
Going to be busy week. Nokia & Microsoft event on 5th September. Motorola (now owned by Google) event on 5th as well. Motorola marketing their event as the main one of the day. They announced after Nokia & Microsoft.
Apple set to announce event for early September as well. New iPhone, iOS 6 and maybe new iPad mini. iPod touch needs a refresh to.
Who would have predicted this in 1996? Another story here is how much Microsoft has gone down in value since 1999. Same thing will happen to Apple of course. Wonder who will be top of hill in 2025?
Apple overtakes Microsoft as most valuable company ever
Apple hit a market capitalization of over $620 billion this morning, breaking the record of $618.9 billion set by Microsoft back in 1999. The company is now worth over $200 billion more than the second largest company in the world, Exxon Mobil, and almost $400 billion more than the $256.7 billion Microsoft is today.
Apple’s valuation is a factor of its share price, currently just over $660 per share, and the number of outstanding shares available to investors. The company’s share price has been steadily increasing as of late, as rumors of a new iPhone and a smaller version of the iPad have gained steam.
Newly funded App.net may be in its infancy, but it’s already attracting a slew of developers vexed by increasingly restrictive policies at the big social networks.
I wrote previously about winding down my usage of Twitter. It turned out more drastic than that. I stopped dead in my tracks on Saturday morning with this Tweet.
I did post a followup Tweet telling anyone looking at my Twitter timeline where they can find me now. One of the pointers was to my account page on the new Alpha.app.net site. AppdDotNet, or ADN as it’s also being called, is a proof of concept for the open social API envisioned by Dalton Caldwell and others. I’d recommend listening to Dalton Caldwell on This Week In Google Episode 159. It’s a great interview that provides insight into what the AppDotNet API work hopes to provide.
AppDotNet is off to a good start. There have been 120,000 messages posted so far. You can watch realtime stats here. There is loads of development activity around it. With several very nice apps in early release testing. Other services beyond AppDotNet will also be built on the API that provide social interaction services. There is already a rudimentary weblog comment system that uses it.
My activity on AppDot Net so far is as follows. Posts: 88. Followers: 49. Following: 76. I was user 530 to be granted access.
Every one of the stories that followed that path missed the whole idea. So, rather than try to explain it over and over again (on App.net, which is probably not the best soapbox to get the message to the media quite yet), I’m going to give a very simple example in very concrete terms.
Worth reading if you think App.net is just a Twitter clone. http://www.quickapplabs.com/_xyx_pau/
What did sci-fi writers in 1987 think 2012 would be like?
http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/find-sf-writers-1987-thought-world-2012.html
Great article by Documentally on social networks.
http://documentally.com/2012/08/12/social-networks-arent-free/
Song Of The Day. Mna Na H’Eireann. Kate Bush.
[YouTube Link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7vQpaVzcKU ]
The web is full of articles about the tightening up of the guidelines and rules that Twitter will have for use of their API. I won’t rehash them here. Twitter have the right to do what they want. It’s their service. They have to make money to pay the VC’s and other investors they have. They have chosen the follow the sponsored tweets and advertisement model.
Most of the changes they are requiring from applications that display tweets (if said applications are allowed access the tweet stream at all), is that they don’t filter out the new Twitter Cards, promoted tweets and any other advertorial content that will be inserted into the main feed. Most people won’t care. Most people may not even notice. I will.
I hate ads. I don’t use any apps on iOS that are ad supported. If I can’t pay for the app to get an ad free version than I don’t use the app. The same applies for Twitter and other social network sites. I deleted my Facebook account partly for this reason (that and the fact that the content on FaceBook is mostly awful).
Whilst it’s true that the rules that will probably require 3rd party apps like TweetBot to display the advertorial content haven’t kicked in yet, it’s only a matter of time. So I’ve started to wind down my use of Twitter. I’m still debating with myself whether to just freeze it as is, or delete my account.
It’s all very disappointing. I loved Twitter. It was by far and away the best social feed on the Internet. But I refuse to be fodder to be advertised at. If that’s their plan I wish them well. I’m not staying to be part of it.
They won’t notice.
Song of the Day: The Watcher by Hawkwind.
[Spotify Link. Hawkwind – The Watcher – 1996 Digital Remaster ]
[iTunes Link. Hawkwind – The Watcher ]
Some good iPad choices of productivity apps by Matt Gemmell. I use most of these as well. Recommended.
So Google have announced the Nexus 7 Android tablet. Available to pre-order now from the Google play store and shipping in a few weeks. It’s priced very aggressively at £159 in UK ($199 US) and will be running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. It actually looks pretty good. No carrier stuff stuck on top of the base Android. Consensus seems to be that the main competitor to this is the Amazon Kindle Fire.
I think that this new Nexus 7 will also have an impact on the iPad tablet market. The cheapest iPad in the UK is £329. That’s for the iPad 2 that is still for sale. The 3rd Generation iPad, with its simply stunning screen, starts at £399. That means that the Nexus is well under half the price of the cheapest iPad. It’s true that the iPad, with its higher resolution screen, can be used for different types of tablet apps than are possible on a 7 inch screen. But I think that the low entry price of the Nexus will cause people to stop and think about what to buy. Especially in schools. Getting two Nexus tablets for each iPad will help schools deliver on a 1:1 device programme.
So what should Apple do? I think that they should do a 7 inch tablet device. But I don’t think it should be an iPad 7. They should use the iPod brand to fill this space. It’s clear that over the last few years that the iPhone has cannibalised some of the iPod sales. The iPod touch with the 3.5 retina display still sells well. It’s like an iPhone without the mobile radio, which is useful in a lot of situations. I think that Apple should target the 7-inch touch device market with an iPod touch 7. It would give people the option of using the iOS platform, at a lower price point than the £329 and higher cost for iPad. This would leave the iPad name for the premium tablet space (which Apple owns). An iPod touch 7 could run current iPhone and iPod touch apps doubled up. On a 7 inch retina screen this would be okay. Developers would need design new apps targeted at the 7 inch screen as well.
I wonder if we’ll see an iPod touch 7 at this years September iPod event.
Books I want to read this year. List is in no particular order. I’ll select from the list based on whim. Let’s all gather round the glow of our screens in December to see how many I managed to read.
Lonely Planets (David Grinspoon) – Finished
Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success (Ken Segall) – Finished
Chocky (John Wyndham) – Finished
The Geek Manifesto (Mark Henderson) – Finished
By Light Alone (Adam Roberts) – currently reading
Solaris Rising (Various) – partially read. Short stories.
Manhattan in Reverse (Peter F. Hamilton) – partially read. Short stories.
The Fabric of the Cosmos (Brian Green) – partially read
The Devine Wind (Kerry Emanuel) – partially read
Paradox (Jim Al-Khalili)
Why Beauty is Truth (Ian Stewart)
The Rough Guide to the Future (Jon Turney) – Finished
The Equations: Icons Of Knowledge (Sander Bias)
Very Special Relativity (Sander Bias)
It Must Be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science (Graham Farmelo)
The Quantum Universe (Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw)
Why Does E=mc² (Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw) – Finished.
Calculus Made Easy (Silvanus P. Thompson)
China: Illustrated History (Patricia Buckley Ebrey)
America: A Narrative History (George Brown Tindall, David Emory Shi)
The Seven Basic Plots (Christopher Booker)
Writing Fiction: A Guide For The Narrative Craft (Janet Burroway, Elizabeth Stuckey-French)
Reading Like A Writer (Francine Prose)
How Not To Write A Novel (Howard Mittlemark, Sandra Newman)
The Etymologicon (Mark Forsyth)
Snuff (Terry Pratchett) – Finished
Dodger (Terry Pratchett)
The Long Earth (Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter)
Starmaker (Olaf Stapledon)
Odd John (Olaf Stapledon)
Last And First Men (Olaf Stapledon)
Jack Glass (Adam Roberts)
Novelists Boot Camp (Todd A. Stone)
God: The Failed Hypothesis (Victor J. Stenger)
The Comprehensible Cosmos (Victor J. Stenger)
Irreligion (John Allen Paulos)
The Universe (john Gribbin)
Why Business People Speak Like Idiots (Brian Fugere, Chelsea Hardaway, Jon Warshawsky)
Consider Her Ways (John Wyndham)
Land Of The Headless (Adam Roberts)
Gradisil (Adam Roberts)
50 Mathematical Ideas You Really Need To Know (Tony Crilly)
50 Philosophy Ideas You Really Need To Know (Ben Dupré)
50 Physics Ideas You Really Need To Know (Joanne Baker)
Logic: A Very Short Introduction (Graham Priest)
Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction (Timothy Gowers)
Guerrilla Home Recording (Karl Coryat)
Flip, flop, make your mind up! After another about face, I’m here to tell you that I am doing a maths degree from scratch with the Open University. Just because I want to. Courses will be selected from those listed on the Mathematics degree page. Starting with MU123 in February.
I’m deep into NaNoWriMo for the 2nd year at present. It’s designed to get you to forget about reasons why you can’t write a novel length piece of fiction (well 50,000 words anyway, a short novel!) and just get you writing with abandon for the month of November. It’s great fun, and it works. Seeing that relentless slope add 1667 words to where you should be every day is a great motivator. No one expects the 50,000, or more, words that you will have in Scrivener on the 1st December will be something that can be published. No, what you will have will be a chunk of a story that you can add to, edit like blazes, and maybe at some point in the future, have something good. NaNoWriMo is a kick-starter.
I was thinking recently that it would be useful to have a month to focus on doing an app from start to finish. I’ve dabbled with development for ages, without knuckling down and getting something done. I’ve decided to do it in December. Take 31 days and use my spare time to do an iPhone app that I want for myself. I floated the idea on Twitter and a few people seemed interested in doing something themselves. Of course I’m doing an iPhone app, but there is no reason that any other sort of app couldn’t be done. A Macintosh app, a Windows Phone 7 app, an Android app, a web app, or an app for whatever platform you like.
I know what my App will be. I want it for when I’m travelling. None of the iPhone travel apps do this one task the way I want it to work. Or if they do, they link to web services where you need to have an account etc. And all the other features of the web service and app, that I just don’t want, get in the way. Keep it simple! So the goal of NaAppDevMo for me is to provide a rigid timeframe and a structure within which I can get this basic app done.
Like in NaNoWriMo you are not going to produce an app that will make you a fortune, or maybe even make it to the App Store. But what it might give you is the confidence that you can take a concept for an App from design, through to running on your device (or in a simulator). This will hopefully show you that it is possible for you to do App development. Even if it’s just as a hobby and for fun. And if your App is useful you can spend time over the next few months maybe refining it and releasing it for others to use.
To do NaNoWriMo successfully most people need to do some planning up front, so that they have scenes and ideas ready to write about at the start of November. The same would be true for NaAppDevMo. Some planning would be useful. Outlining what the App you are going to design and produce should do would be a good start. I’d say keep it simple and do an app that performs one task really well. I’d make it a real task though. One that you would find useful yourself.
There is a Twitter hashtag #NaAppDevMo that you can use to post status updates if you are going to participate, or just follow it to see how others are getting on. There won’t be a website like the one there is for NaNoWriMo. Post blog posts on your own site, updates on Twitter, or on FaceBook about your progress.
Here are some pointers to resources for iOS development that you may find useful if just starting out. These are just a small sample of the resources out on the web for new iOS programmers. Post others you think would be useful on Twitter using the #NaAppDevMo tag. Post any you think would be useful for other platforms as well if you are targeting them.
Beginner iOS Development Tutorials
There are some great looking new iOS 5 development tutorials on the iOS Apprentice site. These are epic length tutorials that take you from start to a finished app. So a great resource if you are just starting out with iOS development. The 1st tutorial in the series is free. It’d be well worth doing the 3 that are available now before doing your own app in December. The tutorials cover the new iOS 5 additions that you will want to use. Like ARC, so you don’t have to do manual memory management, and Storyboards to allow you to design the workflow of your app.
Stanford University have a complete series of lectures on iTunesU for their course CS 193P iPhone Application Development. The current series of lectures is being posted as they are available. They cover iOS 5.
App Design
For iPhone app design the book Tapworthy by Josh Clark is a very good resource. Apple have some great user interface design sessions available on iTunesU. You have to be a member of the Apple Developer Program to access these. I’m not sure if they are available to people with the free membership. If you are doing iOS dev then the paid option is useful if you want to run your apps on physical devices to test. It’s $99 (£69 in UK). You can run your apps in the Xcode simulator if you are not a paid member of the iOS developer program.
Some essential videos to watch:
WWDC 2009 Session 100 – iPhone Interface Design – Basic iPhone design. Might be a bit dated now, but good foundation.
WWDC 2010 Session 103 – iPad and iPhone User Interface Design – The 6 stage app design process outlined in this session is great.
WWDC 2011 Session 110 – Designing User Interfaces for iOS and Mac OS X Apps – The latest update on how to design apps. Based on last few years of actual use and experience of Apps out in the world.
Books
There are lots of good beginner level books out there for iOS development. For NaAppDevMo I’d go with the iOS Apprentice tutorials as a start. You might want a book on Objective-C so here are 2 very new ones. One is a new edition that covers ARC etc. and is due on 15th December.
Programming in Objective-C: Updated for iOS 5 and Automatic Reference Counting
Objective-C Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide
The UK Government are holding a consultation to canvas views on whether the speed limit on UK motorways should be increased from 70mph to 80mph. It seems to me that many people currently drive at about 75mph when the motorway is clear. They see 75mph as enough over the speed limit not to get prosecuted. If the limit is raised to 80mph then 85mph will become the new norm. I can’t see the point in this. In my experience all this will mean is that you will get to the next part of your journey with congestion more quickly. It won’t make much difference to overall journey times. I’ve tried driving long distances going faster than the speed limit when I can, and then the same journey sticking to the speed limits. Over a 2 week period the times the journeys took each day were with 10 minutes of each other. Some of the fastest journeys were the days I stuck to the speed limits. So I can’t see this increase to 80mph making journeys quicker. It’ll also burn more fuel for no gain.
If they want to decrease journey times it’d be better to make it an offence to sit in the overtaking lanes on the motorway when there is space on the inner lanes. 3 points for everyone hogging the overtaking lane would do more to increase traffic flow on the motorway than increasing the speed limit!
Lots has been written today about the death of Steve Jobs. Too soon at the young age of 56. Stephen Wolfram’s thoughts are worth a read, as are Stephen Fry’s. I won’t add a long post to what’s been already written. I’ll just add my thanks to Steve, and all those who worked with him, for providing products that have made my life richer and easier since the 1980’s. Steve’s legacy will live on via the great team that he has left in charge at Apple. I’ve been lucky enough to have seen several of these Apple employees, and many, many others, at various Apple and Macworld conferences. They are all brilliant. Steve has left Apple in good hands. The road ahead has been signposted by Steve Jobs’ vision. I look forward to walking it.