Friday, February 7, 2014

Customizing Git

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In the beginning, I used to use Git exclusively via the command line interface (CLI).  Later on, I've gotten used to using various Git GUI tools for OS X such as Gitbox and SourceTree.  However, with the latest Mavericks release, I've been seeing a lot of instability with these tools so I've been going back to the command line for a while and I've discovered a few helpful tips that can make your life easier.

The first thing you'll want to do is make sure your ~/.gitconfig file is up to snuff.  This file holds various Git preferences such as the username and email that is used for every commit.  For details on how you can customize this file, see Customizing Git Configuration.  For instance, I've made sure that Araxis Merge is the diff and merge tool used by Git:


[diff]
        tool = araxis
[difftool]
        prompt = false
[merge]
        tool = araxis
[mergetool]
        trustExitCode = true


A few Git aliases I like to use include:


[alias]
        ci = commit
        co = checkout
        st = status
        branches = branch
        lol = log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit
        lola = log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --all
        ls = ls-files
        gblame = gui blame


Next you will want to add a Git completion script appropriate for your shell environment.  This script can help you auto-complete branch paths and more.  Simply create a ~/.git-completion.sh file at your root directory and paste in the contents of the script appropriate for your shell environment and add it to your shell startup configuration (~/.bash_profile in my case) like so:


source ~/.git-completion.sh


Finally, you can show what branch you're currently working on via a Git prompt script.  Like the Git completion script, you'll want to create a ~/.git-prompt.sh file at your root directory and then add it to your shell startup configuration similar to the git-completion script.  For example, when working on the master branch of the Librarian project, my shell prompt looks like:


[abraginsky@darthomir Librarian (master)]$


Obviously, you can configure Git in many more ways than this.  Nothing beats the main documentation and a book I recommend reading is Version Control with Git.

Hopefully you've found this helpful!  Feel free to post any other Git command line tips and tricks that you like to use.

Thanks to @jarjar2k7 for some of these tips.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

CocoaConf San Jose 2013

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This past week I attended the CocoaConf conference in San Jose.  It was an intimate gathering of Mac and iOS developers with a bunch of interesting talks, including keynote presentations from important developers in the industry.

The sessions I attended included:

  • 2-D Game Development Workshop (covered both prototyping techniques and the Cocos2D/Kobold2D frameworks) (Josh Smith)
  • Mastering the Project File (Michele Titolo)
  • Introducing Collection Views (Mark Pospesel)
  • Keynote: The People We Work For (Matt Drance)
  • Zen and the Introduction to Gesture Recognizers (Johnathan Penn)
  • Stronger, Better, Faster with Instruments and Debugging (Kyle Richter)
  • We Made An App For That (presentation of interesting apps people are working on where the winner was chosen based on applause levels) (Jaimee Newberry)
  • Less Code, More Fulfilling (Daniel Steinberg)
  • Coca Design Patterns (Saul Mora)
  • iOS Performance Tuning with Instruments (Bill Dudney)
  • Keynote: A Pocketful of Patterns (Daniel Steinberg)
  • Advanced Behavior and Performance Testing with UI Automation (Johanthan Penn)
  • Making Successful Apps (Michael Simmons)

Slides from all of the talks are still in the process of being uploaded, so check this link often.

I will be expanding on this post for each of the sessions that I attended soon.

Friday, April 27, 2012

Resolving multiple versions of Xcode command line tools

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Lately I had a spare machine that I wanted to install MacPorts ports such as "coreutils" onto.  However, since it had both an older version of the Xcode command line tools associated with Xcode that was installed before things moved to the App Store as well as the latest version (4.3.2), I ran into an issue where MacPorts didn't like the current version of the command line tools that were being linked.

If you open terminal, you can verify which version of the Xcode command line tools you currently have:
xcodebuild –version

And the path that is being used:
xcode-select –print-path

If the first command shows something like “4.0.x” and the second shows something like “/Developer”, you’ll want to first install the latest Xcode command line tools (either from Xcode preferences or from https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action#).  Then you’ll need to “switch” the path to the latest version that is associated with Xcode as downloaded from the App Store:
sudo xcode-select –switch /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

Running the following should now show “Xcode 4.3.2”:
xcodebuild –version

Now you can proceed to install ports from the command line:
sudo port install coreutils

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Changes...

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While I haven't posted in a while, it doesn't mean I have been exactly idle either. After accepting a position with Dotblu, Inc. back in 2009, my life became quite occupied with building new applications both on the web and native devices. During this time I dove deeply into e-commerce solutions, mobile web technologies, iOS development, and other areas.

As of last week I have left Dotblu, Inc. and am considering my options going forward. I see this as an exciting time in my life as there are many fields I am interested in.

I will definitely be posting on a more regular basis in the near future.

Also, I will be attending this year's Game Developer's Conference in March as always and hope to report on some of the things that interest me. You may see me at various tech meetups in the SF bay area so don't hesitate to approach me and say hi.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

iPhone and iPad news will be on hiatus for a few weeks

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Unfortunately there will not be any iPhone and iPad news updates for the next few weeks as I will be very busy completing a few different projects.

Definitely check my Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/lemonkey in the meantime as I may be retweeting iPhone and iPad related news from time to time.

Thanks for checking out the blog and see you soon!

Friday, June 25, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - June 25/2010

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Apple Launches iOS 4 for iPhone, iPad TouchThe A to Z of programming languages: Objective-C

Apple Now Stores and Shares Your iPhone's Location

BarMax, The $1,000 iPhone App, Is Profitable And Expanding With New York Version

Apple's Small Problem: iOS 4 And iPhone 4 One-Up The iPad

iPhone 3G Couldn't Handle iOS 4 Backgrounds

More than a quarter of iPhones break within 2 years

iPad Left Vulnerable After Record iPhone Patch Job

First 720p videos from iPhone 4 hit YouTube

iPhone 4 Teardown

App Store: 1% of Apple's gross profit

Statement by Apple on White iPhone 4

Wi-Fi iPhone Syncing Coming "Someday"

iPhone 4 News Roundup

Huge lines to pick up new iPhone

iPhone 4 + Gyroscope + Gaming = All Kinds of Awesome

The Top Four iPhone 4 Hardware Issues So Far

HOW TO: Use iMovie for iPhone

iPhone economics and lower barriers to entry

Here is iPhone 4 FaceTime Working on a Cellular Network

Friday, June 18, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - June 18/2010

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Apple tweaks iOS rules for developers, but still no flash Apple made a few more tweaks to the developer agreement, revising how it handles interpreted code and more.

What's So Special about iPhone 4's Aluminosilicate Glass The glass coating on both sides of the new iPhone has some interesting properties.

Even With Pre-Order Failures, iPhone 4 Sells Out In Under A Day Did you successfully pre-order the new iPhone? If you didn't, you shouldn't feel so bad.

WWDC 2010 Session Videos The session videos from this year's WWDC are now available online (developer login required).

iPhone 4 Confirmed to Have 512MB of RAM (Twice the iPad and 3GS) While this is still a rumor, it would follow past iPhone upgrades.

Sleeping iPhones Send Phantom Data Large amounts of 3G data seem to be sent overnight from the iPhone according to some users. If true, this is significant now that AT&T is phasing out the unlimited 3G data plan.

Does The iPad Change Everything? Publishers Chime In Top publishers attending the Big Money Untethered conference in New York this week give their opinions on the iPad.

Sizing up the iPhone 4 for shutterbugs A great article summarizing the photographic capabilities of the new iPhone.

Friday, June 11, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - June 11/2010

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Week of the World Wide Developer's Conference Edition!
Phew. A lot has happened this week, most of which was the announcement of the new iPhone 4 at WWDC. The majority of this week's articles center around this announcement so I've gone ahead and grouped them together below. The normal iPhone and iPad news articles of the week come after.

What Will The Next iPhone Mean For Gamers? Now that the features of the next iPhone have been revealed, Kotaku takes a look at what impact it will have on future games and gamers.

With hours before the new iPhone announcement, AT&T shift upgrade eligibility forward Now that it has been revealed that for the time being there will be no iPhone on carriers other than AT&T, many people are wondering what sort of a plan they're going to have if they want to upgrade to the new iPhone. AT&T now has a website that lets you check.

Adobe to Bring Flash-Based Ads to iPhone Adobe and the ad company Greystripe have combined forces to deliver Flash-based advertisements to the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Bow to your new lord and master, the iPhone 4 Another summary of the features of the new iPhone 4 at WWDC.

The iPhone 4 Supports 3D Motion Gaming One innovative feature that was announced for the iPhone 4 is a gyroscope, allowing the phone to behave like a Nintendo Wii device, able to sense movement along 6 axes when combined with the existing accelerometer.

iPad By the Numbers The latest stats concerning how the iPad is doing in the marketplace are nicely laid out in an infographic.

Everything you need to know about the iPhone 4 More analysis of the new features in the next iPhone.

Apple's iOS 4: Here's What's New The iPhone isn't all hardware. There is an operating system that runs underneath it all which got an upgrade as well. Here are some of the new features.

The iPhone 4 WWDC keynote is live For those that weren't able to go to WWDC, the keynote is now watchable online.

Apple's Amazing "Hyperwall" of 10,800 Apps There was a neat display of falling App Store icons on multiple monitors at WWDC. Check out the video.

An iPhone Lover's (Initial) Thoughts On iPhone An iPhone fan ruminates on what they like most about the iPhone 4 so far.

Setting the Record Straight on Google, AdMob, and Apple's TOS With the new iPhone comes a new iPhone developer agreement that many people are interpreting as blocking ad companies like AdMob from the iPhone. Steve Jobs says it's not true. Read on to find out the truth.

What's Missing From iPhone 4 Is Part Of What Makes It Great An interesting take on the missing features in the new iPhone 4.

WWDC Keynote WiFi woes may have been due to iPhone 4 drivers One hiccup in an otherwise smooth presentation at WWDC this year was the network connectivity causing problems while Steve was demoing Safari. It was initially blamed on all the WiFi traffic going on by the live-bloggers, but someone has another possible answer.

Resolving the iPhone resolution Steve Jobs has been criticized for how he has been portraying the amazing quality of the display in the new iPhone 4. Here is an explanation which supports his claims.


Winning The App Store Lotto: What A Week At No.1 In The App Store Looks Like Interesting financial data concerning an iPhone app that made it to number 1 on the app store.

Did Appl Tell Times to Shove Its App-Takedown Letter? Just recently the New York Times told Apple to take down a popular iPad news-reading application "Pulse" but Apple has put it back up again. Speculation continues.

D8 Interview With Steve Jobs Steve Jobs was recently interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher at the D8 summit in Los Angeles. The video is insightful but it is 1 hour and 30 minutes!

Excellent: Mac Classic converted to iPad stand Here's a neat hack for an old Mac Classic: a holder for your iPad!

Apple's Worst Security Breach: 114,000 iPad Owners Exposed While this isn't technically a leak at Apple, AT&T had an exposed AJAX call that allowed hackers to feed it with a list of unique iPad identifiers that then returned emails associated with them.

It's real: iPad Arcade...well at least its not fake A really cool way to play games on your iPad that was originally an April Fool's item at Think Geek this year but it is now a reality (but not for sale?)

A Look Behind The "Words With Friends" iPhone Gaming Phenomenon The popular "Words With Friends" iPhone game is interesting since it focused on multiplayer functionality from the beginning, at a time when many iPhone apps were not.

How to Build iPhone and iPad Web Apps with Caspio A handy guide on how to build HTML based applications for the iPhone and iPad using the Caspio framework.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

No iPhone and iPad news this week

By:
Due to the memorial day holiday I am quite behind on things. Look forward the next installment of iPhone and iPad news next Friday, the week of WWDC.

Friday, May 28, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - May 28/2010

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Things are pretty light in the iPhone and iPad news department this week. Everyone is most likely holding their breath for WWDC. We'll see!

Watch the skies for the Air Force's secret space plane...with your iPhone! Track a new Air Force space plane and any other satellite with this neat iPhone app.

Firefox Home Coming to iPhone, Browser Next? A new Mozilla iPhone application "Firefox Home" allows you to share your Firefox history, bookmarks and tabs from your most recent browsing session onto your iPhone.

Friends Around Me iPhone/iPad app lets you interact with friends or strangers, just like they were really there Another location based app for the iPhone and iPad allows you to socialize with other people who may be in your vicinity virtually.

Friday, May 21, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - May 21/2010

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iPhone App Sales, Exposed How much money can you make developing iPhone and iPad apps? While it's a hard question to answer, this article helps shed some light on the subject.

Apple claims 'huge' loss over iPhone leak While it's not really a secret a new iPhone is coming, Apple claims the leak of the prototype has hurt potential sales as people may now wait for the new version.

Yes Folks, The Official iPhone Twitter App Is Here After Twitter acquired the makers of the popular iPhone Twitter client "Tweetie", they have release the official Twitter client for the iPhone.

The original Prince of Persia coming to iPhone I'm personally looking forward to this game being ported to the iPhone. While I'm curious how the touch controls will be, I know it will be a great way to pass some time.

Apple release iPhone OS 4 Beta 4 SDK to developers Historically, beta 4 versions of iPhone OS releases signal that we're close to having the real thing.

Usability of iPad Apps and Websites: First Research Findings This free copy of the Nielsen Norman Group Report on iPad application and website usability is an interesting read.

Friday, May 14, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - May 14/2010

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There are no links for this week.

Friday, May 7, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - May 7/2010

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Physics 101 - UIKit app with Box2D for Gravity A great tutorial on using Box2D for your next physics based iPhone app.

Apple Quietly Fixes iPad's Broken App Store Revealing 1,422 Games A recent change to the iTunes App Store has uncovered a large collection of previously unseen games for the iPad.

Apple Is Pushing A Secret "VIP" Ad Program for iPhone Apps Apple has released new information regarding their new iAds program a part of which is aimed at developers who will use iPhone ads to drive downloads/purchases for their own apps.

iPad Is Destroying Netbook Sales Recent financial figures is showing how profound of an effect the iPad is having on netbook sales.

Evidence Shows iPhone HD's Ability to Shoot in...HD More details surrounding the next iPhone reveal the possibility for HD image capture.

Future iPhone Might Include Heart Rate Monitors Apple has applied for a patent that would allow for an integrated sensor to send cardiac activity to the iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

This Week in Android News - May 7/2010

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Lots of news this week so let's get started!

Looks like after much begging and waiting for a Sling Mobile application for Android, it looks like Sling Media caved and has been working on an Android version which has now hit private beta. It's been a long time coming since users of Sling Media's SlingBoxes which purchased the first Android handset, the T-Mobile G1, have been clamoring for. Now with the private beta for the Android version swinging into full-effect, it looks like the long wait will be coming to an end soon!

Speaking of people who have been clamoring for an Android port, Mint.com has finally released their Android version of their finance budgeting system. Users of Intuit's Mint.com can now check their balances, budgets and almost everything through the Android application. Several features are missing, but it's a great start with their 1.0 version and so far, people have been pretty happy with it.

Not satisfied with your Nexus One or shiny new HTC Incredible? Find your handset working great but still want more speed than 3G can give you? Introducing, the first Android handset with 4G support, the Sprint HTC EVO 4G. Even spotted with Oprah using it, the HTC EVO 4G goes on pre-order "later this month" with a target release date of either June 6th or June 13th. It also looks like B&M wise, RadioShack will be carrying the handset. If you're lucky enough to be in an area which has solid Sprint wireless coverage and 4G coverage, this might be your next shiny new phone!

Speaking of new handsets, the myTouch continues to "evolve", depending on how you look at it. The myTouch 3G Slider is coming soon to T-Mobile. This model ships with Android 2.1, a slight speed bump to a 600 MHz processor, a 5MP camera and an 8GB microSD card. Nice upgrade along with a slide-out keyboard. So if you fancy your myTouch 3G and want to stick to something similar with the addition of a keyboard and want all the goodies in Android 2.1 and a better camera... this is your ticket!

And now onto a project which would make any Apple fanboi or iPhone user squeamish! David Wang, who previously was able to port Android over to an iPhone 2G (1st Gen), has successfully ported Android to an iPhone 3G, minus the audio. The ability to dual-boot into either the stock iPhone ROM or the Android OS is simply amazing. Since the days of getting Android on the the iPhone 2G, he now has a volunteer team of seven developers on maturing the project. And the only real issue left with getting Android working properly on the iPhone 3G is the audio portion. It can SMS and make calls over the "radio", however the speaker/mic section still doesn't work. We're all sure David and his team will get that licked quickly and be able to finally find time to get the iPhone 3G(S) port going!

Speaking of "sticking it to Apple" and the latest bickering between Adobe and Apple, Adobe has decided to give free Android phones to their employees pretty much following in the footsteps of Google. In preparation of the Google I/O conference in two weeks, Adobe plans to show Flash for Android, in full force. I, however, don't see Steve Jobs losing any sleep over this. There is an Android Tablet that's being released at the end of June 2010 from Archos called the Archos 7 Tablet. However, it's known at this time that it runs Android 1.6 and Android Marketplace isn't available in which Archos has their own AppsLib store. However, I don't think long after its release that it will be "jailbroken" in a sense by the ROM hackers...

And finishing up the Apple "themed" news in Android News... Still haven't bought an Apple iPad? No fear as Android Tablets are slated to be shipping soon and Adobe isn't afraid to show full Adobe Flash & Adobe AIR support on a prototype Android Tablet. Looks pretty snazzy! And you'll be able to watch Hulu on your shiny new Android Tablet! And speaking of Hulu, it looks like Skyfire 2.0 Beta browser, which I covered in last week's news, has Hulu support working... for now. And with Skyfire's previous dealings with Hulu support... that can change at any time.

Speaking of browsers, have you used Google with the Android browser lately? You might have noticed, that Google's search website is now much more mobile friendly. Google has optimized their search website when it has detected an Android handset. It is now much easier to refine your search among other new features and functions! Hooray for all!

And popular "remote control" & "private VPN" LogMeIn Ignition is now available as a beta for Android. Basically, the "easy setup VNC" is now available on the Android platform for you to do all your remote-control goodness on your Windows or OS X boxen.

And finally for this week, Google Goggles for Android gets an update for multilingual translation. Mostly gimmicky at first, Google Goggles when first released was fun... for about 5 minutes when you run out of things for it to figure out. Now, Google has added the ability for Google Goggles to "read" English, French, Italian, German and Spanish through your camera and translate it into a wide variety of languages. It's pretty amazing if you haven't tried it already! So give it a whirl and let us know what you think!

And this is This Week in Android News!

Friday, April 30, 2010

This Week in Android News - April 30/2010

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Twitter finally releases an official app for Android. On the heels of Twitter releasing an official app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, Android gets some lovin' too. Only problem? It requires Android 2.1.

Skyfire 2.0 beta web browser has been released for Android and now people who can't wait to get Flash Lite or full Flash support from Adobe can at least be able to view Flash videos that exists on many sites. Still a beta, but from initial reports says that it works quite well at detecting Flash video on a webpage and plays the video quite nicely. One thing that does not work yet is "trick play" (i.e. FF or RW within a video).

Speaking about browsers, not to be outdone by Skyfire, the team at Firefox has finally released a public pre-alpha of "Fennec" for Android. Initial reports says that the native browser that ships with Android is still faster, but the team is using the Android NDK (Native Development Kit) to optimize the Gecko rendering engine. We're pretty sure they'll get Fennec running much faster and more stable in future builds.

A new milestone this week as the Android Market plays "catch-up to iTunes App Store" in the number of applications available. The Android Market has reached 50,000 applications. Of course in an "open" market, we're not quite sure how many of those apps are exactly worth anything other than "spamming" the market, but at least the Android Market can claim it's on its way in catching up with Apple.

Soon it will be May... and next month... June... in which the next version of Android will finally hit. Froyo, otherwise known as Android 2.2, will have its "public preview" during Google I/O conference in May. Kevin Lynch, CTO of Adobe, has gone on the record that Froyo will hit general release sometime in June. Now all of you can play FarmVille on your phones...

And for people who complain about the lack of space for the "hundreds" of apps you have installed on your Android phone, do not fear. It looks like an "official" version of Apps2SD is coming soon thanks to the infamous Issue #1151 on the Google Code android bug tracker. The rumor is that it'll appear with Froyo... but Google is being tight-lipped about when it's coming.

Now that the HTC Incredible has been released... it also appears to have sold out of them too through their on-line store for at least until May 4th. Both Engadget and Gizmodo have done a proper review and so far, it seems to be as impressive as many had hoped. For Verizon, the HTC Incredible *is* their "Nexus One" and the Nexus One is not being planned for Verizon anymore. Strange thing though... seems that Vodafone U.K., ran out of Nexus One phones. Maybe they are selling well...

And finally, still have that G1 or MT3G and can't bring yourself to getting an Android 2.1 handset like the Nexus One just to get Eclair? Have no fear... Cyanogen (Steve Kondik) is here! In what seems to be one of the ultimate hackery of all time for the HTC Dream platform, Cyanogen & #teamdouche has released CyanogenMOD 5.0.7-test1 for the G1/MT3G platform which brings Android 2.1 (Eclair). Unlike the previous Eclair builds for G1's and MT3G's, everything seems to be functional including YouTube and the camcorder application. There is one caveat if you're a G1 user (and this does not apply to MT3G users). Due to the size of the ROM, if you're a G1 user, you need to install the DangerSPL to help reclaim some space in order for the ROM to fit. -- So follow the instructions to the "T"... and finally enjoy Eclair on your Dream devices!

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - April 30/2010

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New market study shows iPhone continues to be big in Japan For a country where just about every cell phone is a smartphone, the iPhone is continuing to do well in Japan.

Lost iPhone prototype spurs police probe The stolen iPhone prototype story keeps evolving as the Silicon Valley police have begun to investigate.

How The iPad Will Change The iPhone Game Industry While the iPhone and iPod touch have changed how people have thought about games on their portable devices, the iPad stands to bring in more casual users than before.

4 Reasons the iPhone Is a (Video) Game Changer More thoughts about how the iPhone is changing the gaming landscape.

Playing Games on the iPad...with 11 Fingers With the iPad being a new type of touch device for most people, playing games on it introduces new ways of interacting.

The iPad POS system, coming soon to a restaurant near you A neat use of the iPad as a point-of-sale (cash register) tool in restaurants.

5 iPhone Apps to Boost Productivity

WWDC 2010 announced for June 7th through 11th While it is rumored that the next generation iPhone will be announced at this event, AT&T did recently show that they're not allowing their employees to take vacation during the month of June, lending credibility to the rumor.

New iPhone Could Hit Stores During Apple's Developer Conference

Gowalla Checks-In To The iPad Before Foursquare Can this hurt FourSquare?

Before The FTC Blocks The Google-AdMob Deal, Maybe It Should Read Apple's iPhone Licensing Agreement Details concerning Apple's iPhone Licensing Agreement with respect to its new iAds may need to be considered when dealing with the potential Google-AdMob deal.

Person Who Sold the iPhone Prototype Revealed The story regarding the "lost" iPhone 4 prototype continues.

iPad 3G Hits Mailboxes and Retail Stores The iPad 3G is now available. While this makes it more portable in the sense that you don't have to rely on having a WiFi signal, there is the added cost of this version of the device and the data plan from AT&T.

Friday, April 23, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - April 23/2010

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An intro to modern OpenGL While not directly targeted towards iPhone developers, this is a great introduction to modern OpenGL programming.

This Is Apple's Next iPhone If you haven't heard about the "lost" iPhone 4 prototype that Gizmodo eventually got a hold of, well, take a look at this article. It's pretty much agreed that it is a real prototype of the next iPhone device considering Apple wants it back.

What The New iPhone Could Mean For Gaming Now that it's pretty guaranteed that there will be a front facing camera on the next iPhone, this article considers what the next iPhone could mean for next generation games on the device.

How Apple Lost the Next iPhone A follow-up article from Gizmodo summarizing how they came into possession of the iPhone 4 prototype.

Apple sold 8.75 million iPhones last quarter, 51.15 million since launch Apple's latest earnings report was very positive, most of which is due to the success of the iPhone.

Adobe tosses in Flash towel after Apple limits iPhone dev Adobe has officially decided to stop work on the tool that allows the porting of Flash applications to the iPhone and iPad after the recent update to the iPhone SDK agreement.

Apple's Wall is Tumbling Down Due to the loss of the iPhone 4 prototype, some people are wondering if it may be in Apple's best interest to intentionally leak information.

Where do developers draw the line with Apple? A nice summary of the reactions to the recent iPhone SDK agreement update.

Wooden iPad Kiosk For Square at Sightglass A neat stand being used for the iPad to make it into a point of sale register for a coffee shop.

Rana Sobhany Demos Her iPad DJ Setup An interesting application of the iPad for making music.

Android - Now On The iPhone Video evidence of being able to run Android on the iPhone.

Google to Bring FREE Turn-By-Turn Navigation to iPhone In a press conference on April 22nd Google announced that it will bring free turn-by-turn navigation to smartphone platforms, including the iPhone.

Unity and the iPhone OS 4.0 The head of Unity technologies addresses the concerns around the latest update to the iPhone SDK agreement with respect to 3rd party development tools.

Friday, April 16, 2010

This Week in Android News - April 16/2010

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Hello Everyone! First of all, I'd like to thank Ari for bringing me on-board. Also, I wish Dan Grisby the best after his decision in regards to Mobile Orchard. As Ari introduced me earlier in the week, my name is Daniel Kao and I currently work and reside in Seattle, WA. I'm employed by Ãœbermind, Inc., one of the premiere consulting companies on iPhone/iPad and Android development in the world, as an Engineer however my primary subject matter expertise is in Enterprise-level Infrastructure Architect. But I dabble in Android & Java development so there's my link to Android News! We have many mobile applications underneath our belt including "Twilight Tracker" for Summit Entertainment and the AllRecipes.com "DinnerSpinner" thanks to a strong relationship with Apple. Again, thanks goes to Ari for allowing me into his "blog home" and now onto the first ever edition of , "This Week in Android News!"

This was sort of expected, but not so soon. Twitter Confirms Official Twitter App Coming To Android after last week's acquisition of Tweetie by Twitter itself. Twitter's CEO, Evan Williams, made the announcement at Twitter's first ever developer's conference called Chirp. It's unknown at this time if Twitter will pull a "Tweetie" and acquire an existing Android Twitter app, but the first one that comes to everyone's mind is twidroid.

HTC Droid Incredible officially official for Verizon, April 29 for $200 and it has a lot of Verizon customers drooling at the mouth. Loaded with Android 2.1 with HTC's Sense UI, 8MP Camera, 1 GHz Snapdragon CPU (based off the ARM Cortex-A8), WiFi, 8GB of internal memory with microSD expansion, and a 3.7" AMOLED screen. Has a lot of people wondering if the Nexus One at this point will ever come to Verizon now that the HTC Incredible is virtually the same unit with the Sense UI and a higher spec'ed 8MP camera. Alas, Verizon has finally loose the HTC Incredible page with e-mail sign-up to be notified when you're able to pre-order, which at this time is April 19th. Pricing? $199.99 after a $100 rebate or sans the rebate at your local Best Buy when it hits for $199.99.

Still thinking about purchasing that Apple iPad? Word on the street that Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, recently stated to friends at a party in Los Angeles that they're working on something! Least NYT is stating that it's arrival is imminent.

And onto more Google related news, during Google's Q1 earnings call, the Nexus One is in the black with 60K Android devices activated per day. A lot of folks were wondering if the Nexus One would ever be able to sustain itself and prove profitable to Google with it's seemingly new model to sell mobile phones in the U.S. And apparently it has. With the 2010 mobile market shaping up, the Android OS is on target to hit 15% of the installed smart-phone user base by the end of the year, we're sure Eric and the rest of Google is extremely pleased so far.

Alex eReader now shipping, powered by Android OS after telling everyone that it would ship two weeks after the release of the Apple iPad... And it's true. The $399 Android-powered device features both a 6-inch e-ink display and a 3.5-inch, 16-bit color touch-screen LCD. It has no tie-in with Barnes & Noble but it is usable with Google Books and anything that supports Adobe DRM, plus the typical EPUB, PDF, HTML and TXT formats. With built in Wi-Fi and the ability to stream video and surf the Web, on the smaller color screen, it's also able to run certain Android applications too. Overshadowed by the Apple iPad however, for only $100 more... the Alex eReader might be a tough sell.

Android OS has been ported to Intel Atom Processors (x86) which comes to no surprise. Android was written to run on ARM-based CPU's like the Snapdragon, but with Intel's interest recently with the mobile market, it definitely wants its mobile processors in a growing market. The largest jump that ARM-based chips currently has over Intel based solutions comes down to power-consumption. Here's hoping that Intel continues to work on their 25mm² Intel Atom CPU's to use even less juice and jump into the fray for the mobile market.

Vonage VoIP App Comes To Android and with it comes the ability to make international calls with your phone either with your normal minutes or over WiFi. The Vonage Android application will automatically recognize that you're placing an International call and at that point will route the call through their network either over your existing provider's network, or if you have WiFi, a VoIP call over WiFi which wouldn't use any of your minutes from your carrier's plan. Now you don't have an excuse to call Mum in Manchester...

And on the Disappointing-News Dept., Adobe Flash Release for Android Pushed to 2nd-half of 2010 which has a lot of Android users quite angry after it was promised for the 1st-half of 2010. There have been modified ROM's out for certain Android phones (i.e. DROID, Nexus One) which has the "Flash Lite 10.1" beta that was stripped out of the HTC Desire ROM. However, the "full" Flash 10.1 has been pushed to 2nd-half of 2010 now (maybe as a Christmas Present?) and we'll have to wait.

And finally some fun stuff, Myxer’s Android App GeoPix Blends Wallpaper Images With Geolocation. And interesting application in which your phone's wallpaper changes depending on your location. GeoPix basically allows you to define certain wallpapers to be used when you're geo-located to a certain area or region. Love that NSFW image but don't need it to be displayed as your wallpaper when you arrive to work? Easy. Set GeoPix to use a different wallpaper when you're at work!

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - April 16/2010

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Steve Jobs' Response on Section 3.3.1 Lately there's been a lot of news about how Steve Jobs is personally replying to emails. One developer wrote to him regarding the controversial new iPhone developer SDK 3.3.1. What follows is an enlightening back and forth that we've not heard of from more traditional news outlets on this topic.

Video Chat Coming To The Next iPhone? All Signs Are Pointing To Yes With a new version of the iPhone hardware most likely coming sometime this June, there has been a lot of speculation as to its features. One often wished for item is a forward facing camera that would allow video chat.

A Calm, Reasonable Argument Supporting Apple's Anti-Flash SDK Language Seeing how last week's announcement of the updated iPhone developer SDK 3.3.1 caused such a commotion, it's not unusual to see so many articles on-line about it. Here is one possible explanation as to why Apple chose to exclude Flash and other 3rd party development tools.

10 Amazing Musical Instrument iPhone Apps Since the App Store doesn't have a dedicated section devoted to musical instrument apps, this article offers a sampling of some of the more amazing ones.

Apple To Drop Support For The First-Generation iPhone From a personal reply from an email sent to Steve Jobs himself, it seems that Apple will no longer be supporting nor updating the iPhone 2G in the future.

A brief assessment of Job's iPhone defense Another article weighing in on the motivations behind the recent update to the iPhone developer SDK 3.3.1.

AppsFire Hands Out iPhone / iPad App Star Awards (Videos of the Winners) At the recent 360iDev conference in San Jose, AppsFire awarded developers of unlaunched iPhone and iPad applications.

Opera Mini iPhone App Gets Apple's Stamp Of Approval Since Apple has long held the stance that applications that duplicate the functionality of built-in applications on the iPhone were verboten, it came as a surprise to many that they would approve the Opera Mini iPhone web browser application.

John Gruber: Apple Was Right, Adobe Get Over It [Video] In yet another article covering the fallout from the recent changes to the iPhone developer SDK 3.3.1, the developer whose original posting about it which was then referenced by Steve Jobs himself in an email discussion is interviewed.

The 8 best iPad apps -- so far Seeing how the iPad is fairly new, here is a list of some of the better applications that are out for it so far.

Beat the crap out of fruit with Fruit Ninja on iPhone This innovative new game that uses the touch controls of the iPhone in an interesting way will be out on the App Store April 21st.

The iPad isn't a computer, it's a distribution channel More insightful analysis on the direction Apple is taking with the iPhone and iPad going forward.

iggy investigates an iPad It may be expensive for a cat toy, but this cat sure seems to be interested in the iPad.

Ars Technica Reviews the iPad A VERY in-depth analysis of the new iPad. Highly recommended if you're deciding on whether or not to purchase one.

Follow-up video interview with Dan Grigsby on the end of Mobile Orchard While I'm sad to see Dan leaving iPhone development and shutting down Mobile Orchard, especially since it was his main source of income, I look forward to what he'll be doing next. Based on his past history, he has always been working on cutting edge stuff. In this interview he elaborates on his post from last Friday where he announced his decision to leave.

iPhone Development: Can We Stop with the "Evil" Thing? Jeff LaMarche, a leading iPhone developer and author, weighs in on the controversy surrounding the recent update to the iPhone developer SDK 3.3.1.

The world waits on iPad 'cause we bought them all Due to the unexpected demand for the iPad here in the United States, the rest of the world is going to be getting their iPads a little later than originally scheduled.

GDC Online Organizers Announce iPad, 3D, iPhone, Game Narrative Summits GDC Online (aka GDC Austin) has announced the iPad, 3D, iPhone, and game narrative summits that will be taking place this October.

Rally Up Brings "Real Friend-Focused" Location Based Social Network To The iPad For the more privacy minded user, Rally Up provides an alternative to existing location based services that only shares your location with people you know personally.

TouchArcade 360iDev Game Jame - A Night to Remember 360iDev recently held an overnight "game jam" where iPhone developers got together to work on their game ideas from scratch. The following article describes what it was like and highlights some of the games that came out of it.

Awesome c64 iPhone App Stays Free, Gets Update The popular Commodore 64 iPhone app will now be free without reverting back to being a paid app and it will be getting an update soon.

"Glee" Gets an Addictive iPhone and iPad App Smule, makers of the popular Magic Piano app, have launched a new karaoke-like application that allows you to sing along with popular songs that have been featured on the popular "Glee" television show while allowing other users from around the world to listen in.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Introducing Daniel Kao!

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I would like to take this opportunity to introduce a new contributor to this blog, Daniel Kao. I've known Daniel for more than 10 years and we both share a love of all things cutting edge and technical.

Daniel currently works for Ãœbermind, Inc. in Seattle, WA, one of the premiere iPhone and Android consultant shops in the world.

He will be starting out with a "This Week in Android News" column similar to "This Week in iPhone and iPad News".

I look forward to his contributions to this blog and hope that you do too.

Friday, April 9, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - April 9/2010

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Welcome to the new home of "This Week in iPhone and iPad News"! If you haven't already heard, Dan Grigsby from Mobile Orchard is no longer going to be involved in iPhone development nor the website going forward. I am grateful for all the opportunities that Dan has presented me and I wish him well.

Like its previous home at Mobile Orchard, I hand pick what I find to be the most interesting iPhone and iPad related news stories of the past week (Friday to Friday). I welcome any link submissions, so please send them to urls@aribraginsky.com.

How the iPad is Already Reshaping the Internet (Sans Flash) A piece on how the decision by Apple to not support Flash on the iPad is affecting existing heavy hitter websites like CNN and The New York Times.

Tapulous Looks To Repeat Tap Tap Revenge's iPhone Success On The iPad With 'Radiation' Tapulous, makers of 'Tap Tap Revenge' have recently revealed their next big game titled 'Tap Tap Radiation', targeted for the iPad.

Aurora Feint Debuts Social Gaming App For The iPad Aurora Feint 3, a free to play massively multiplayer social gaming app which is based on virtual goods is now available for the iPad.

Loopt Pulse Bets That Location On The iPad Is About Planning Loopt has an interesting take on location based applications for the iPad where they think users will be more likely to plan where they're going to be on it than actually check in at their current location.

iPad Apps: The Next Gold Mine or Just Fool's Gold? Since the iPad has only been out for less than a week, only time will tell if we're going to see another "gold rush" as developers flock to this new platform.

Ustream to Bring Live Video to iPad With the lack of Flash on the iPad, there are still many applications that will allow you to view streaming video, including Ustream.

Technology Review: Rethinking Apps for the iPad An informative piece on how things are different when developing for the iPad vs. the iPhone.

TweetDeck for iPad Hits the App Store TweetDeck, the popular Twitter client, is now available for the iPad.

Episodic Gaming Invades the iPad with Sam & Max The hilarious point and click adventure "Sam & Max" is now available on the iPad.

What's new iPhone SDK 3.2 Now that the NDA has been lifted on the previously announced iPhone SDK 3.2 (for iPad), here are some of the details.

Developers Rush to Buy iPads and Test Their Apps The creators of Doodle Jump are profiled as they prepare to update their popular game for the iPad.

iPadPeek Want to know how your website looks on the iPad? Check out this site.

'Intellvision' Released for iPhone and iPod Touch The classic console from the early 80's now has an iPhone and iPod Touch app.

How Publishers Plan to Monetize iPad Content With the launch of the iPad, many publishers are wondering how they can monetize their content on this new device.

Unboxing the iPad Data A neat infographic covering the new iPad.

Top 20 iPhone Games That Work Great On An iPad A great collection of games for the iPad.

Gamers of the iPhone, Your Attention Please What the new Game Center feature of iPhone OS 4.0 means for iPhone gamer.

iPhone OS 4.0 Brings Multitasking, Ad Framework for Apps Apple announced iPhone OS 4.0 this past Thursday, revealing some pretty impressive new features which have wide ranging consequences. The following are just some of the articles that have come out which cover these new features:

Apple versus developers - this time it's personal With the recent update to the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, Apple has dropped a pretty big bombshell for anyone planning on using 3rd party development tools to build iPhone apps. This article is just one of many that have started to come out this week:

iPhone and iPad News

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Due to recent events related to Dan's position on Apple's new SDK agreement and resulting decision to discontinue the Mobile Orchard website, I will be posting my weekly "This Week in iPhone and iPad News" column here going forward.

In the event that the Mobile Orchard website does go dark in the future, I am working to archive my past postings and they will be available here soon.

Friday, April 2, 2010

This Week in iPhone and iPad News - April 2/2010

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iPhone App Developed To Control NASA Robot Want to drive a NASA robot on Mars? There's an app for that.

Star Wars Cantina: Your Own Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy, In Your iPhone Coming soon to an iPhone near you, "Star Wars Cantina", a Diner Dash-like game set in the Star Wars universe.

How to Make an HTML5 iPhone App A nice tutorial on how to use HTML5 in your next iPhone app.

Apple Launching iPad with Explicit Content in App Store Apple has recently segregated explicit content into its own category on the App Store.

Apple to Launch New Mobile Ad Platform? "iAD", Apple's own mobile ad platform, is set to launch on April 7th, 2010.

Facebook | App Store Now you can browse the App Store from the comfort of Facebook. Includes the ability to share your favorite apps with your friends among other features.

The Ultimate Gamer's Guide to Apple's iPad With the iPad coming out this weekend, take a look at some of the games that are being targeted for the device (updated frequently).

New iPhone This Summer; Verizon Model Could Be Ready By Fall In addition to the new iPad, it looks like the iPhone is going to be ready for a new hardware refresh later this year and we might possibly also see the iPhone becoming available on Verizon for the first time.

Medialets Rolls Out Universal SDK for iPhone and iPad Ads Now publishers and developers of iPhone and iPad applications can use a new SDK to switch between ad networks and first-party ad servers.

MapQuest Brings Free Voice Navigation to the iPhone MapQuest 4 Mobile is a free GPS navigation app for the iPhone that includes "basic voice guidance".

Flash Comes to the iPad...At least for Advertisers iFlash Ad Units from Greystrip ports Flash ad units into a format the iPad can display.

Starbucks Now Letting You Pay For Your Coffee Fix Via iPhone in 1,000+ Target Stores

ScoreLoop Launches White Label Service for iPhone App Monetization ScoreLoop is a white label social platform helping developers add social features to their iPhone and Android apps and it now includes support for monetizing their apps.

WolframAlpha Drops iPhone App Price by 96% to $1.99, Offers Refunds The powerful website WolframAlpha recently deployed an iPhone application at an initial price of $49.99 but has recently reduced the price to $1.99. They are now offering refunds for those users who purchased it at the original price.

Friday, March 26, 2010

This Week in iPhone & iPad News - March 26/2010

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Wikipedia Gets Pretty with Articles iPhone App Take a look at some of the interesting features in a new Wikipedia app for the iPhone.

iPad Developers Code Their Apps in the Dark While Apple says that iPad applications can be submitted next week to coincide with opening of the iPad App Store, most iPad developers only have the iPad simulator to work with until then, except a select few who actually received the device early.

Valgrind Phil Hassey, the author of Galcon for the iPhone, mentioned this memory management and debugging tool at GDC 2010 and it's definitely worth a look.

Corona Now Supports iPad Busy week for these guys.

Apple Stores Now Able to Sell Unlocked iPhones [update] While the original article mentioned that the phones were unlocked, it turns out that they are just contract free.

Flurry: iPhone Games Are A $500 Million Industry In The U.S. And Taking Share Insightful data from Flurry about the state of the game industry and the impact the iPhone has had.

App Store Approvals Slow As The iPad Land Rush Begins Some iPhone developers have noticed that their approval times have increased just as the date for the iPad launch nears.

Better Late Than Never, Justin.tv Comes To The iPhone The popular video streaming service Justin.tv now has an iPhone application that has some innovative features.

You Can Now Gift iPhone Apps A feature has been added to the App Store that allows you to gift an iPhone application. One interesting side-effect to this is that some developers are noticing that others are gifting large numbers of their application and shooting up the rankings where they would normally need to sell a certain number.

iPad Launch Looks to be Dominated by Gaming Apps Flurry has data on applications being tested on the iPad and they've broken it down by category. It turns out the majority of them are games (surprised?).

Urban Airship: Developer Preview Release for AirMail "AirMail is the next generation of push notification for mobile apps. It’s media-rich (think video and HTML), has the ability to do return-receipt, an in-app inbox and all sorts of cool features."

Buzz Aldrin Portal to Science and Space Exploration for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad Buzz Aldrin has created a Portal to Science & Space Exploration to unite people and technology for the purpose of educating and entertaining the world on this interesting and critically important subject.

iPhone Is Eating Sony PSP and Nintendo DS' Lunch Another perspective on Flurry's recent stats regarding the iPhone's impact on the game industry.

Digg's iPhone App Is Now Available The much anticipated Digg iPhone app is now available, with a new Digg site redesigning coming soon.

Further Tests Confirm iPhone Touchscreen Superiority An interesting study on the accuracy of the touchscreens on various mobile devices shows that the iPhone is superior.

AdMob Registers 50% Market Share For iPhone OS Based On Smartphone Traffic Admob recently announced that smartphones accounted for 48% of its worldwide traffic last month, with the iPhone still being the dominant device.

3 Useful iPhone Apps to Help File Your Taxes

Friday, March 19, 2010

This Week in iPhone & iPad News - March 19/2010

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More iPhone and iPad news bites for this week.

Monday, March 15, 2010

This Week in iPhone & iPad News - March 12/2010

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This week's edition includes GDC 2010 coverage and more!

Friday, March 5, 2010

This Week in iPhone & iPad News - March 5/2010

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New issue of "This Week in iPhone News" is up!

Monday, March 1, 2010

This Week in iPhone News - February 26/2010

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Another installment of "This Week in iPhone News".

Sunday, February 21, 2010

This Week in iPhone & iPad News - February 19/2010

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Another week, another set of iPhone news!

Friday, February 12, 2010

This Week in iPhone News - February 12/2010

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This week edition is larger than normal due to last week's special iPad edition. Take a look!

Friday, February 5, 2010

This Week in iPhone & iPad News - Februrary 5/2010

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With the iPad announcement from last week, there are now many news items on both the iPad and the iPhone. Take a look at the latest batch.

Friday, January 29, 2010

This Week in iPad News - January 29/2010

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Due to this week's announcement of the iPad, the normal "This Week in iPhone News" has been pre-empted by the iPad news that came out.

Friday, January 22, 2010

This Week in iPhone News - January 22/2010

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Some of the more interesting iPhone news items of the week.

Friday, January 15, 2010

This Week in iPhone News - January 15/2010

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Catch up on the latest in iPhone news this week!