Rant
Soapbox mania!
Learning a new language can be a rewarding experience, if for no reason but to view the coding world in different way. Another way to enrich this experience is through the environment that a company creates to actually write programs. Visual Studio and Eclipse have spoiled me rotten, which is why I grit my teeth at times when developing for the iPhone/iPad with XCode, Apple's integrated development environment (IDE) for writing apps on the iOS platform. A few quick rants:
Why do I have to @synthesize everything by hand? Why can't I click a button and XCode...
Rant time.
I work at a Fortune 200 company and like most large enterprises we also use Microsoft Office. As a business productivity suite I think it's the best out there, no matter what the open source hippies might say, but when it comes to development with these products, I really get my panties in a twist.
Everyone has beat the IE horse to death, so I won't go there, but today I was augmenting a vendor software package to send automated emails out to end-users. We like to brand our communications, even to our internal customers, so producing quality communication is...
I published my first app in the iPhone App Store a little while back, here are a few loose thoughts on the matter:
Approval process takes too long. It took a week to get initially approved for my app and an update I put in for took about the same. It's a very discouraging process to have to go through. It'd really be nice if the initial approval took a week and you get a pass on updates. I know that opens them up for abuse, but couldn't I just sign one of those 'on my honor'...
Print media is in trouble. I see it in the eyes of solicitors trying to get me to subscribe to the paper. Their selling point completely rests on coupons you can get in the Sunday paper. Never mind the great stories, sleuthing, or anything else related to the content. It’s all about the coupons. I get nearly all my news online (even local news) for free, so I need to get a newspaper subscription for the coupons? I can get those online, too. So when WIRED released a promo video showing off what they had in mind for a tablet...
When I was young my grandparents owned a VCR (this was back in the day when the common person either rented a VCR or had to go to the theater to watch a movie) and a copy of Star Wars. My absolute favorite thing to do was watch that over and over again. At that age, The Empire Strikes Back and (I think) Return of the Jedi had already been out, but my love affair was with the first movie.
On that video tape, however, was a short documentary-like show that also showed some clips from the other movies. This fascinated...
After two weeks of an iPad, the honeymoon of sorts is starting to wear off, but I can still say that the device is very much worth it. One of the biggest uses I get out of it, reading, has not been largely delivered by Apple. It's not that I don't read on my iPad, because I do, but iBooks has largely left me unfulfilled when it comes to purchasing books.
For me, books are forever. You buy one, read it, and then stick it on your shelf. It stays there until the moment strikes your fancy to read it again....
Earlier this month I wrote about my 1st generation iPod Touch getting the shaft in regards to iPhone OS 4, but today I understand (to a degree) why that is. Take a look at the following chart:
Ouch. I suppose that it doesn't make much sense from a business perspective to support a device that doesn't have very much market share when compared to its newer, nimbler siblings. It doesn't make it any less irritating that I won't be supported, but at least I can understand some of the why.
Source: AdMob Mobile Metrics
I feel like being in a ranty mood, so here we go.
This evening I was accosted by a solicitor. She rang my doorbell and knocked on my door, not a friendly knock mind you, but the kind that announces, "HEY, I'M HERE TO SELL YOU SOMETHING YOU DON'T NEED AND AM GOING TO MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE A JERK IF YOU DON'T BUY SOMETHING FROM ME." She shook my hand immediately after I opened the door and I noticed at once that she held a bottle of water. "One of those," I thought to myself.
"You're not trying to...
Next month will mark the second year I have owned a first generation iPod Touch. It has been an excellent device for not just music (truth be told I don't use it much for that), but also for reading, surfing and email. It has a number of apps that have become an integral part of my daily life, so it is a frustrating time for Apple to now write it off.
Today Apple announced the upcoming release of iPhone OS 4.0. Among the many features it brings, multi-tasking stands out to be the one most people will be happy with. As...
I was able to get into the Apple store this morning using a secret technique to beat the crowds, just so I didn't have to wait in line for eternity. I've been using this iPad for a little while now and can say that I am both impressed and underwhelmed at the same time. The device is attractive, no doubt, and is very responsive, but some of the apps just straight up suck--especially the double pixeled ones. I'll post a photo later, but the apps designed for iPhone just look absolutely horrid on the higher resolution display, and I'm...
Full Rant Archive