With Intel’s new processor announcements slated for the International Solid-State Circuits Conference starting February 7th, it would seem that it’s about time for Apple to release a new top of the line MacBook Pro as the announcements usually seem to coincide (and it also coincides with MacWorldl Expo. The MacBook Pro is 242 days since the last release, somewhat over the average of 200 days.
iPad aftermath
January 30th, 2010TidBITS has a nice photo tour of the iPad launch, including pics of Xeni Jardin, Stephen Fry and some John Gruber amongst other Mac luminaries.
Daring Fireball and Stephen note that the iPad web page rendering is much faster than on the iPhone, presumably due to the A4 processor. I just want to know if it supports more than 8 pages open (which is the limit in the iPhone version of Safari).
Check out the above Stephen Fry link for his most excellent take on the iPad launch, including such gems as:
I’m not advocating dumb gullibility, but it is has always amused me that those who instinctively dislike Apple for being apparently cool, trendy, design fixated and so on are the ones who are actually so damned cool and so damned sensitive to stylistic nuance that they can’t bear to celebrate or recognise obvious class, beauty and desire. The fact is that Apple users like me are the uncoolest people on earth: we salivate, dribble, coo, sigh, grin and bubble with delight.
iPad
January 28th, 2010Woohoo!
A 24.6 cm tablet by the looks of it. Looks a lot like the lid of a MacBook Air. Onscreen keyboard. Looks like it has the iPhone’s home button.
10 hours battery life, 680g, 16-64Gb of storage. 1GHz CPU.
No GPS? No camera?
Existing iPhone apps can run in either native size or pixel doubled. New SDK for the iPad now available.
Oh look, an e-book reader, iBooks (how come we didn’t see that coming! 
Looks like Delicious Library’s shelves.
iWork has been ported to the interface. Does this mean it has files? a Finder? iWork apps $9.99 each, can connect a projector with a cable.
US$499 entry point (A Kindle is US$259). 64Gb With 3G = US$829
Accessories: Keyboard dock, a nice case that can stand it up to watch movies.
iTablet iPhone iThingy roundup
January 27th, 2010Aside from the usual random speculation about Steve Jobs worldchanging release in a few hours time, there have been a few interesting articles recently, namely
- AT&T may no longer be the exclusive iPhone carrier in the US
- Amazon changing their royalty structure to encourage vendors to price their books at US$9.99, either scared of the new device’s market, or colluding with Apple to provide content for it?
- Google releasing Google voice for the iPhone via a web page rather than as an App Apple would have to approve
- The question of which input method the device will use (will Apple extend the iPhones Voice Control crack the voice recognition problem?), and of course
- the invite to the launch event itself (colour e-ink anyone?)
- 20 things about the hyped iPhone/iTablet/iSlate
- Doonesbury are devoting a week of strips to the launch
- Will this have anything to do with Apple hiring the Yale head of business school to start the Apple University
- Or AMD’s refresh of its low cost processors
- Apple’s stock price currently at US$215.59, up from around US$83 a year ago. Soon to come crashing down after the hype singularity of the launch as analysts realise that even the second coming of the Jesus phone can’t live up to everyone’s expectations. (Hint – follow the old Apple employee’s maxim of ’sell before the keynote’)
I also wonder what the cool feature will be… Mesh networking? Biofeedback? Merging with other nearby devices to form a larger device? Inbuilt projector?
It will also be interesting to see if Apple launches any updates to their 17 inch MacBook Pro as they would probably always have done if they were attending MacWorld this year. Also, I predict an iPhone software update, an iTunes update and a Mac OS X update.
Now, lets sit back and see how wrong we all are…
Security Update 2010-001 won’t install?
January 26th, 2010I’ve downloaded Apple’s Security Update 2010-001 for Snow Leopard, but when I try to install the package I get told that
Security Update 2010-001 can’t be installed on this disk. This volume does not meet the requirements for this update.
Anyone else having this problem?
Grand Theft Auto iPhone
January 21st, 2010Bnet Australia reports that at the $9.99 price point Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars is rocketing up the App Store charts, unlike the $30 or $40 versions for the Nintendo DS or the Sony PSP version. Quel Surprise!
Fink tips
January 19th, 2010If you’re setting up fink probably a good idea to set it to use the Masters last as frequently it seems your local mirrors aren’t properly updated. Hopefully using your local Mirrors is faster and cheaper and fairer on the masters though
ATO ECI and CSI
January 15th, 2010If you use the Australian Tax Office’s Electronic Commerce Interface (ECI), and the Common Signing Interface (CSI), then you may want to check out these instructions on Macintouch on how to install them.
Novamind Mac Programming job in Queensland Australia
January 11th, 2010If you can work in Australia then Novamind have a job going in Queensland. From their site:
Want to work with the latest tools and a 30 inch screen?
Want to work for a company where innovation and software development is taken
seriously?
Want flexible working hours and no silly dress code?
Want a career where what you achieve really matters?
Are you a clever problem solver with an enthusiastic and positive attitude?
Are you a self starter and still able to work in a team?
Can you get things done?
NovaMind is based in sunny Queensland, located in Shailer Park midway between
Brisbane and the Gold Coast. We are currently expanding our product
development group to develop the worlds most advanced Mind Mapping software
for Apple and Microsoft systems.
We are looking for a software engineer who has a passion for creating innovative
high quality software using the latest tools and technologies. You must be a self
starter who loves solving problems in a logical self-disciplined manner. We are
looking for someone who will fit well with our development team and remain
courteous and friendly with both staff and customers at all times.
If this doesn’t describe who you are, your values and nature, please don’t apply for
this position.
We are looking for people with the following skills:
Essential skills:
- Strong Objective-C skills
- Strong AppKit development experience
- Experience in meeting tight deadlines in a small development team
- Experience with developing high quality software using object oriented methodologies
- Experience interacting with customers on resolving defect reports
Other highly desirable skills:
- CoreData skills
- Applescript / automator development experience
- Experience with developing frameworks
- XML and XSLT programming skills
- Experience with loadable bundles and plugin architectures
- Rendezvous/bonjour development experience
- Experience with distributed objects
- Experience with internationalization
- Knowledge and understanding of Mind Mapping
- Knowledge and understanding of screenplay script writing
- Experience using MacOS X 10.5 Leopard
Other desirable skills:
- Experience with subversion
- C# programming skills
The tasks required for the position will vary over time, but include:
- Designing and building new releases of the Mac version of NovaMind.
- Assistance with setting product direction and feature sets for the Mac and Windows versions of NovaMind.
- Documentation of the software at code/program level
- Testing of the software
- Preparing releases of the software, including installation mechanisms
- Assisting as required with technical support
- Fixing defects in the software
- Working with beta testers to resolve any pre-release bugs
- Improving systems
- Setting and meeting key performance indicators
Application E-mail address is available on their site, but please tell them you heard about it here.
New York City iPhone programmer job
January 10th, 2010In case anyone’s interested… posted on 2010-01-05
Our New York City client is a full-service agency for the digital age. They are looking for a full time, on-site, salaried Senior iPhone App Developer paying to $130,000 + benefits. Relocation assistance provided if required. US Citizens, Green Card holders, EAD or CAN only please.
The ideal candidate for this position will possess:
* 1+ years of experience with the UIKit framework
* 3+ years Mac development experience using Cocoa/Objective-C
* You should have at least one published iPhone app under your belt and some sort of portfolio or list of app/s to share
* C/C++ experience a plus
* Ability to develop against a variety of web architectures and services (HTTP, SOAP, REST, etc.)
* Knowledge of a scripting language a plus (Ruby, Perl, Python, BASH, etc)
* Experience managing projects in an SVN environmentTO APPLY: The absolute best way to apply for this job would be to not only submit your resume and/or portfolio or samples, but to elaborate on how your experience relates to the job description and submit your salary requirements to beau-AT-open-source-staffing.com
