Craig Hockenberry on iPhone SDK and backgrounding

Craig Hockenberry is the man, the myth, and the legend behind the absolute best Twitter application on the Mac (he works for the Iconfactory). We would all love to see Twitterrific on the iPhone, but Craig offers up a "healthy dose of reality" regarding the iPhone SDK and backgrounding services (applications that run in the background even though the phone is running a different foreground app).In a recent blog post, Craig attempts to explain why Apple will not be giving developers access to backgrounding services on the iPhone. He points out that in a mockup design of "Mobile Twitterrific," based on the jailbreak/community toolchain, refreshing the XML data from Twitter every 5 minutes led to a dead iPhone battery in only 4 hours. "The heart of the problem [is] the radios. Both the EDGE and Wi-Fi transceivers have significant power requirements," he says. "Whenever that hardware is on, your battery life is going to suck."He also reiterated what Apple said about the "Core Location" feature that Apple provided in the SDK: use it only on an "as-needed" basis. Craig said that the issue of backgrounding services may get addressed later on, but right now Apple is preventing iPhone developers from "shooting themselves in the foot." He said that it will take months before the desktop developers have gotten the mindset of an iPhone developer, and that thinking like a desktop developer will lead to bad designs.Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Macintosh/iPhone software update round-up - November 19, 2008

Section: Software + Apps, Miscellaneous, Third-Party, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone + Communications, Email/IM, iPhone SDK & Apps, Mac + Computers, SoftwareMacintosh and iPhone software updates and announcements for November 19, 2008: Feral Interactive has announced Friday, November 28th as the worldwide release date for the Mac version of LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, a captivating take on the cinematic adventures of Hollywood’s iconic archaeologist. Developed by TT Games and LucasArts—the same people behind LEGO Star Wars II—LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures takes the fun and creative construction of LEGO bricks and combines it with the wit, daring and non-stop action of the original movies. Wi-Gear, the company that is committed to building a world without wires, thinks people who exercise or are on-the-go deserve to enjoy their music hassle-free. That’s why they developed iMuffs, which allow users to listen to their iPod or Bluetooth phone through a sleek, ergonomically-designed set of headphones that are wireless yet deliver great stereo sound. Tekkeon has introduced its first external laptop battery with automatic voltage detection: myPower ALL Plus MP3700. Simply connect the laptop, and this new universal lithium polymer battery does the rest to power a laptop for up to 3.5 hours of extra runtime. Like Tekkeon’s other myPower ALL products, this battery is universal so that it can be used across different types of devices, and different laptop brands. It’s also modular, so a second battery can be added to provide up to 7 hours of extra runtime, and includes a USB port for simultaneously charging and power 5V devices, like cell phones. Aaron and Adam Fothergill are the developers behind the wildly popular iPhone game Flick Fishing, currently the number one game in the App Store. Adam was responsible for the graphics and sound of Flick Fishing, while Aaron did the game design and coding. Aaron was kind enough to take part in an interview with OS X Reality, discussing Flick Fishing, iPhone gaming and the potential of Mac gaming. Karelia Software has released a Software Developers’ Kit (SDK) for creating plugins for Sandvox version 1.5 and up. The Sandvox SDK allows Cocoa developers to create new custom pages, pagelets, and collection index data types. By creating custom-built plugins, Sandvox can be extended far beyond the core of its own built-in 11 page types and 19 pagelet types. The Sandvox SDK is a set of documentation, full source code to almost all of the built-in plugins from Sandvox, and an Xcode template. IT Professional book publisher Apress, Inc., has announced the publication of its first iPhone and iPod touch development title, “Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK.“ Beginning iPhone Development sees veteran Mac developers Dave Mark and Jeff LaMarche take the reader from the basic downloading and installing of the free SDK, right through to building applications that make use of advanced features such as iPhone’s MultiTouch Gestural Support and Accelerometer. Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Apple likely to refuse Flash on iPhone?

The iPhone is unlikely to carry Flash even if its hardware technically supports it, a report claims. Although Flash is in widespread use on the Internet, running everything from animation to full applications, Wired notes that section 3.3.2 of the iPhone SDK specifically prohibits the downloading and use of interpreted code in apps, unless the APIs and interpreters are already preloaded. This by...

Apple week in review: the App Store hammer, new MacBook rumors, Apple in IT

This week's top Apple news ranged from how the iPhone will be affected by the T-Mobile G1 to performance improvements in Adobe CS4 to Apple's continued enforcement of its mysterious App Store policies. Also included was how Apple's patch release policy affects enterprise IT, and more. Read More...

iPhone software 2.1 beta drops push notification

Section: Apple News, Updates, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone + Communications, iPhone, iPhone SDK & AppsSince the iPhone SDK announcement, developers have been clamoring for the ability to have their applications run even after being exited (currently, all apps quit upon returning to the home screen, with the exception of Apple’s Mail and iPod/Music apps). Knowing what a battery hog apps are, Apple didn’t provide such a solution, instead announcing at WWDC a push notification service that stays on instead of the applications. It waits for notifications from other applications, and then displays them on the home screen, thus saving the battery life by not having all apps open at once. Steve Jobs said this service would be available in September. Apple made a surprising move by including this service in its iPhone 2.1 Betas. Some applications went as far as to include the feature in currently shipping products to prepare for 2.1’s release. Then, in the fourth beta of it’s upcoming iPhone software v2.1, Apple quietly removed the ability for push notification. Infinite Loop points out that this might not be such a bad thing. Apple may be tired of putting out “half-baked” products and is really making sure they get 2.1 right before releasing it to the masses. iPhone 2.1 software is expected for mid-September. Via Infinite Loop Full Story » | Written by Adam Fisher-Cox for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Ask TUAW: Syncing from a portable to a desktop Mac, battery comparisons, Apple TV to NAS, iPhone SDK and more

In this episode of Ask TUAW we'll be looking at questions about syncing between a Mac portable and a Mac desktop (backing up and iTunes playlists), battery comparisons between manufacturers, sharing files from a NAS to an Apple TV, subtitles on an iPhone and much more.As always your suggestions are most welcome, and questions for next week should be left in the comments. When asking a question please include which machine you're running and which version of OS X, as certain answers will vary between different Macs and Tiger vs. Leopard, etc. (we'll assume you're running Leopard if you don't specify). And now, on to the questions!Continue reading Ask TUAW: Syncing from a portable to a desktop Mac, battery comparisons, Apple TV to NAS, iPhone SDK and moreRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments