Credit: Distant Suns

A guest post by Mike Smithwick, author of Distant Suns 3 for the iPhone/iPad and blogger at distantsuns.com. Mike is a seasoned iPhone/iPad developer who has developed numerous iPhone applications. He has recently released Distant Suns 3. Follow Mike’s work on Twitter for more information.

So I was on my way to South America last week for the July 11 eclipse, and a funny (as in really stupid funny) thing happened to me. I left $600 of camera gear in the men’s restroom. Fifteen minutes later when I discovered this little jewel in the crown of stupidity, my new Canon ELPH, and relatively new Canon SX10IS had vanished to the hands of some lucky, bas….er, “fortunate traveler.”

As a longtime amateur photographer, I always yearn (yes, yearn) for great opportunities to shoot stuff…with a camera that is! And now I had none…oops, wait a minute there Bunky, I have my trusty new iPhone 4!

So this was going to be an iPhone 4 expedition only. A few years ago I sniffed at people whipping out their Razrs or similar class phones to shoot once-in-a-lifetime photos…now I had to be one. Grrr. Except the quality of the built in phone cameras are much better now, and the iPhone 4 is no exception. So I thought maybe I should document this to show how capable the little camera is. Note that WordPress does compress images quite a lot, so these will have some noticeable compression artifacts when displayed full size.

The expedition started with a 3 day side jaunt to Chile’s Easter Island, otherwise known as the place of those “damned creepy giant heads.”

Besides being loaded down with my iPhone 4, I had a small Celestron Firstscope to examine the southern skies. Unfortunately, said skies were clouded over most of the time so I only caught a quick glimpse of the famous Omega Centauri globular cluster from off the balcony of our hotel. Read more…

Credit: Distant Suns

Another in a very occasional series of columns covering the craft of programming and what it takes to create one of those app things.

Even though this article is about computer languages it is not meant at all to teach one how to “speak” in any of these languages, for that is light-years beyond the scope of this article.

A computer program is likened to a recipe. A recipe with potentially millions of steps that could come crashing down in a smoldering heap of code if as much as one of those steps is in the wrong order. The recipe might tell the system that if the user does something, then load in an image, draw it to the screen in green, rotate three times, do the hokey-pokey and fade it out. And that might be just one little task of thousands in a complex web of tasks, actions and behaviors.

As with any kitchen recipe, there is a specific lingo invoked that serves as a precise form of shorthand that the iPhone can understand as well as the programmer. And it is this shorthand that forms the basis of a computer “language.”

The earliest computers were programmed at the lowest level, in bits and bytes; frequently hand-entered by switches on the front of the machine, paper tape or even punch cards. It was a system that was extremely tedious, highly error prone and very hard to read. Back to the kitchen analogy: think of the instruction to take a cup of flour and mix it with one egg. Short and to the point. But the earliest machines didn’t know what flour, a cup or an egg might be. So the recipe would now have to actually instruct how to make a measuring cup, how to grow and harvest wheat, then grind it up into flour, and…well, you get the point. There had to be a better way, and as a result, FORTRAN (FORMula TRANslator) was invented in 1954 at IBM. Considered the first modern computer language, it used a combination of basic mathematical symbols, punctuation and simple English words to describe program flow. Instead of having to describe how to raise wheat, the system now already would understand what “wheat” really was. Very quickly other languages were developed such as COBOL, LISP and ALGOL. And many other that are still in use today.

Why so many languages? Languages are generally tailored to different tasks. One might be science-oriented such as FORTRAN, and another database-oriented such as SQL. Apple’s OS-X and iPhone OS are programmed in what had generally been a somewhat obscure language called “Objective-C.”

Read the rest of this article…

Credit: Distant Suns

Sorry for the long delay since the previous column. Something called an iPad I think, came out last week and I was in a rush to have something in the store on day 1. This column is to either help software neophytes get going on their own great app ideas, or to at least illustrate the process for the curious.

We left off the previous story with our hero puzzled over something called Objective-Cand Xcode with very little knowledge of what to do. As with any craft, developers have a set of tools. With iPhone and now iPad programming the main tool is something called Xcode.

By comparison, Microsofties use Visual Studio while Android types opt for an open-source system called Eclipse. While Xcode and Eclipse are free, Visual Studio can cost upwards of $1000 depending what options you need.

So, what does Xcode do? It will simply let you input, organize, “compile” and test your program from beginning to end. Software input is via a fancy-pants text-editor. In just the same way that Microsoft Word has all sorts of little tools and utilities to compose a book, Xcode’s editor has equivalent tools for typing in a program. It has things that keep track of the specialized syntax needed for the code to minimize errors, color coding parts of the text to make it more clear, or linking parts with the documentation.

After typing in your code, then comes the moment of truth, compiling. Compiling is taking the human readable (well, for some humans at least) text and converting it, or rather, compiling it down to the binary codes the iPhone’s chip can understand. If you made an error, the compiler will typically flag it for you, in which case you fix it and compile again. (and again and again) Read the rest of this article…

Credit: Distantsuns.com

A guest post by Mike Smithwick, author of Distant Suns 2 for the iPhone and blogger at distantsuns.com. Mike is a seasoned iPhone/iPad developer who has developed numerous iPhone applications. Follow Mike’s work on Twitter for more information.

When I reserved my iPad, I selected Apple’s flagship store in Palo Alto for pickup. I had never quite understood the Apple line mentality. After all, most people could just save a lot of time and either order one online or wait a day or two.

Now I see the light.

Plus I absolutely needed to get a unit ASAP to test my software, Distant Suns. It was already live in the App Store and had over 80 downloads, so I needed to see what others were to make any fixes for things the simulator didn’t show.

I got there at about 7. Already one news van was parked across the street and about 150 people were in line. The reserved line was the shorter of the two, with maybe 50 or so.

Everyone seemed to recognize the silliness of it all, but also just how fun it was to hang out with fellow Apple fans. The store employees were top notch, handing Krispy Kreme doughnuts and coffee.

One lovely woman behind me, illustrated her geek-cred by telling us how her husband still had his Apple III, and that it was working order. They wanted to get rid of it, but only to someone who could appreciate it. Up went my hand immediately nearly breaking the sound barrier. So not only do I end up with an iPad by day’s end, but a rare working Apple III. Read the Rest of the Story.

Credit: Billy Alexander

A guest post by Mike Smithwick, author of Distant Suns 2 for the iPhone and blogger at distantsuns.com. Mike is a seasoned iPhone developer who has developed numerous iPhone applications. Follow Mike’s work on Twitter for more information.

Okay, okay, so why yet another column on beginning iPhone programming when the net is gravid with similar articles?

Well, when I was asked to start a semi-irregular column by the kind folks at www.iPhoneness.com the general topic would be from an app author’s point of view. So I really need to start at the very beginning (from which I understand is a very good place to start).

It was just about two years ago when the first version of the SDK (Software Developer’s Kit) was unleashed upon the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. While iPhone homebrew was out and about through the dedicated efforts of folks like the iPhone Dev Team, setting up the initial development environment was not for the faint of heart and would bring a frown upon the brow of the mothership once the official app store was open for business.  So if you care about being able to proudly point out your app in iTunes to your friends, you gotta play by the rules. And that means Apple’s SDK and Apple’s restrictions.

There are good reasons for this: Apple wanted to assure to their customers that the apps have been proven to be safe from malicious code and were future-proofed by using the approved library calls. The latter would be essential, especially in the early days of the iPhone’s operating system, as it would likely be updated frequently. Apple would need the flexibility to tinker with the underlying “private” calls without having to worry about breaking existing applications. And as various systems mature we can (hopefully) expect more of the secret sauce to be approved for outside development.

So with this in mind what does it take to write a cool app and make a million bucks? (Uh, start with a cool app idea and two million bucks?) Read the rest of the story.

A guest post by Mike Smithwick, author of Distant Suns 2 for the iPhone and blogger at distantsuns.com. Mike is a seasoned iPhone developer who has developed numerous iPhone applications. Follow Mike’s work on Twitter for more information.

In 1987, Steve Jobs introduced to the world the wonderful and somewhat puzzling NeXT “Cube.” It was designed as the computer for the college student who could also afford a $6000 machine with no floppy drive.  For all of the ridicule and head scratching the machine provoked, it pioneered a number of great technologies. Perhaps the most well known of these powers every Mac and iPhone now being made today: OS-X.

One of the other less successful aspects of the NeXT episode was Jobs’ software distribution model. Considering that the Cube was meant to be a networked based system, all software distribution would be via the net (either that or via the $150 Canon “floptical” disks that would price most applications out of the reach of the demographics). Jobs’ proposed electronic means of purchasing and distribution of NeXT applications would have been pretty cool. Except for one small detail: there was no general solution for handling small secure transactions over the Internet. That is, no way to pay. His dream quickly vanished and vendors ultimately would have to sell their wares by permitting stores to copy them onto the customer’s own disks.

It would take 22 years, but finally that vision would be realized in the form of the iPhone’s App Store. It’s not bad…for a first attempt that is. But there remains a lot to be done from both the developer’s and customer’s standpoints.

For developers, managing the app and gleaning sales trends is unwieldy at best. For customers, discovering great apps is tedious and a hit-or-miss affair. Go with the safe stuff, the stuff on the top-100, and you’ll be okay. If your app is one of the 134,115 other apps not on the list, tough.

I imagine that the success of the store and the SDK caught Apple by surprise, and as such the store worked fine for small numbers of applications, but in the end proved not to be very scalable and soon started bustin’ the seams. Read the rest of article…

A guest post by Mike Smithwick, author of Distant Suns 2 for the iPhone and blogger at distantsuns.com. Mike is a seasoned iPhone developer who has developed numerous iPhone applications. Follow Mike’s work on Twitter for more information.

So it looks like the Apple fanboi community is whipping itself up to the near-ritualistic semi-annual frenzy in speculation over the much rumored, and denied, and rumored again tablet device.

In the spy biz, it’s called “chatter.” That is, when the communications circuits of various targets-of-interest come alive one can safely conclude that something big is about to happen. And the chatter on the Mac-circuits is deafening.

In the weeks before each new iPhone or iPod is released, the chatter slowly reveals each tasty morsel via leaks, rumors of rumors, hidden codes buried deep within web server logs, photos from Mr. Blurrycam (that may or may not be faked), and cases from Chinese companies who bribed the manufacturers into getting a peek so they could get a head start on things. And when it comes to the long and tortured history of the mythical tablet, this nerdly striptease might finally be reaching its apex.

We now know that Apple is planning a “major product announcement” on January 26 in San Francisco. Supposedly a few select developers have been contacted to ensure their apps could run on larger screened devices. References to an iPhone OS “4.0” have been showing up in web servers and the supply chains for screens larger than an iPhone and smaller then a MacBook have cranked into overdrive.

In Apple’s history, they may not have always been the first to the party with a particular technology, but they always push the envelope when they finally arrive. Part of the Apple design ethos is to examine an existing technology, find its weaknesses and improve it. Too many companies do things that are cool just for coolness’ sake, or take the attitude that “good enough is good enough,” whereas Apple waits to get things right. Read the rest of article…

A guest post by Mike Smithwick, author of Distant Suns 2 for the iPhone and blogger at distantsuns.com. Mike is a seasoned iPhone developer who has developed numerous iPhone applications. Follow Mike’s work on Twitter for more information.

It’s no secret that the iPhone has become a phenomenally successful development target among both seasoned professional engineers, and midnight hobbyist fanboys alike. Some of the most interesting and innovative mobile apps are delivered regularly, courtesy of the Appstore, and are just as likely to be developed by one guy after work with a six-pack of Mountain Dew as a large and well-financed software studio.

As a result, ever since that memorable summer day, back in August of aught-7 when the first iPhone hack was announced, the iPhone/iPod app scene has really become nothing short of a worldwide phenomenon.

When I started the Distant Suns port,(what? Another shameless plug?), it was very cool to say to people with an air of superiority “Oh, me? I’m just doing some iPhone stuff.” I would then pause for the genuflections and the bombarding of flashes from the paparazzi. Nowadays the response is more like “so, who isn’t?”

So what makes the iPhone such a compelling platform? There have been many other smart phones out there. Palm, Windows Mobile, J2ME (Java) based systems, Symbian, and so on. Each of these has available public SDKs, and some even come with free dev tools. And there have also been sites and storefronts aplenty for third party apps.

So then, what makes the iPhone development scene different from all of the others that have been around for years? Read the rest of article…

A guest post by Mike Smithwick, author of Distant Suns 2 for the iPhone and blogger at distantsuns.com. Mike is a seasoned iPhone developer who has developed numerous iPhone applications. Follow Mike’s work on Twitter for more information.

It has now been just a little over a 20 months since Apple changed the industry, (yet again), by releasing the iPhone SDK. Had anyone back then predicted that less than two years later, less than two circuits around an average yellow star in the outer arm of the galaxy, the Appstore would be bulging under the weight of over 100,000 applications, they would have been carried away, hidden and fed raw cabbage for about 12 years.

But here we are. I personally have 5 apps up on the store (Distant Suns, Distant Suns (lite), Grand Tour, Weather Planet, and the Live365 player), with one more on the launching pad.

Perhaps one of the keys to this explosion of creativity among the app development communities, is that it revives the notion of solo-programmer applications. In the early days of the PC, the very first software packages were generally created by one or two people on their kitchen table. Heck, they probably even used zip-lock bags as their “packaging.” The systems were small as were expectations for the applications. A “major” game might take only a couple of months for one guy to develop, with perhaps a little additional help from a single artist. As the machines grew larger and more feature-filled the expectations grew as well. Simple 8-bit pixilated images gave way to complicated 3D renderings. Basic static splash-screens were replaced with new cinema-quality animated intros. Cheesy electronic soundtracks were shunted aside for fully orchestrated mini-symphonies. And with the latest game titles, for example, such as Spore or Grand Tourismo, the budgets and manpower approach those of Hollywood feature films costing tens of millions of dollars.

The original version of my first app, Distant Suns (back then called “Galileo 1.0”), was developed over a year of spare evenings on a budget of about $2000 on a floppy based Commodore Amiga 1000 with two meg of RAM. With the advent of the iPhone version, the good ol’ desktop version has now been officially retired. But with few exceptions, up to the very end, DS was still a solo-programmer desktop product and held the distinction of being one of the last vestiges of a more, dare I say, “romantic” nerd era. (If of course “romantic” and “nerd” can be used in the same sentence.) Likewise, it has also been a point of personal pride. Read the rest of this entry »