Month: January 2010

iPad aftermath

TidBITS 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

Woohoo!

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

Aside from the usual random speculation about Steve Jobs worldchanging release in a few hours time, there have been a few interesting articles recently, namely

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?

I’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?

Fink tips

If 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

Musings on Apple’s Next Big iThing

Thinking about the iTablet, iSlate, or iWhateverItWillBeCalled.
For those who haven’t seen it, check out Apple’s Knowledge Navigator from the depths of 1987, a vision that Apple’s been working towards for quite some time now. Note the touch screen interface, and voice control. Not that far fetched from what an iPhone’s voice control can do these days (albeit with less intelligence, and more recognition errors in my experience).

Personally I’m hoping we’ll see more Newton like technologies in a larger screen format. With colour. And handwriting recognition (it’s in Mac OS X, but nobody really uses it. Now why is it there exactly?). And some of the Newton’s drawing and note taking user interface. And of course, with the Internet connectivity the Newton lacked (for the most part)!

Daring Fireball also has Newton musings. I don’t know about John Gruber’s handwriting, but I found the handwriting recognition pretty good, much nicer than Grafitti on the Palm. Plus, you couldn’t easily mix handwriting and drawings on the Palm.
I’m guessing we won’t see a return of NewtonScript though, and probably a good thing given the prevalence of Objective C across Apple’s product line.

Novamind Mac Programming job in Queensland Australia

If 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

In 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 environment

TO 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