Recently in iPhone Category
I finally got around to updating my MT installation to 4.3. My old installation was broken due to upgrading my server a couple months ago and I never got around to upgrading MT.
It has been awhile since my last confession, but a lot has happen since. Around January, my company DS Media Labs was acquired by Apperian through a talent/IP acquisition. Let's just say that while it was fun and we did some cool stuff, in the end it did not work out and I resigned. I just left the company to go out on my own again. There will be more details to be revealed about the new company over the next couple weeks. I will be at WWDC with my new team.
My current project is called Mixr. It is a professional DJ application for iPad. My friend Noe and I had been working on it pretty hard, when we joined forces with our new team. This new team/company is fantastic. I am pretty stoked right now. I can not wait to get it out in the hands of some pros to use.
I have received a lot of feedback on doing the tutorial videos on IPhone and iPad development. Thank you for all the suggestions. I am going to go ahead and start from a beginner level and work up from there.
Fellow iPhone developers, if you really care about iPhone development, please go and read the iPhone HIG now. Yes, stop what you are doing, close XCode, and go read it now!
It's amazing how many applications there are now in the App Store. It's even more amazing how many of those apps totally disregard the iPhone HIG. Everyone seems to think they have a better way to create navigation metaphors inside their iPhone applications. I have no idea what Joe Hewitt was thinking when he decided to create Tab controls and horizontal scrolling navigation controls, but it was a bad idea. Joe then went even further and released them to the public with the three20 framework. This started a trend of applications that violate the HIG and what Apple is trying to stay away from, they look like the Facebook 1.0 application. Do me a favor, go check out Facebook 2.0. Where are all those controls now? What? They are gone? They have been replaced by standard Apple controls? Interesting...
If you get the luxury to be close to Apple and get UI reviews with their teams, you will find out very quickly that Apple does not like anything that comes close to Web metaphors on their beautiful devices and iPhone OS. They do not like the word "Home" being used anywhere. In fact, don't even use an icon of a house. Do not use web based tabs. Use the freaking Tab Bar control, that is what it's there for, to replace that web tab navigation metaphor. Please do not try to redefine iPhone metaphors. Stick to what works and innovate your design based on the HIG. It allows iPhone users to just pick your application up and use it. It really goes along way in presenting a great iPhone UX.
You should try to present all the data to the user with full views. Apple gives us Navigation Bars, Tool Bars, Tab Bars, and Segmented controls. These should be used together to present a clean interface to the user. If you really need tabs, then you did something wrong in your design. You should use full screen views when showing data to the user. It should be very clear and easy to read.
The iPhone HIG has really great advice. A lot of work and research went into the iPhone interface and usage. It is the reason it is one of the best smart phones we have had in the last decade. It's what has helped it stand apart from the others.
Go check out the Apple Design Award winners for 2008 and 2009. All of these applications are great examples of following the HIG.
Just wanted to post this article from our good friends over at Apple. You will need ADC access. It is a nice overview of the API diff from last release to the new Beta 3 release. They update this article every release. So check it out when they release the next versions for an API diff. I like seeing NSNetServices added :)
Apple finally released a tutorial on using Interface Builder for iPhone. I have been dying to create a video for everyone on how to do this, but could not cause of NDA. Since Apple has released this I will make a video on creating the same app using Interface Builder and XCode. I will explain some of the things that Apple assumes you should now, in more detail. I know some people learn better of watching then reading, so I hope the video helps some of you out.
In the meantime, you can check it out here. You will need an ADC account to access it.
Jason Troy pointed out something to me about my template. It was hard coded to the initial Objective-C class files in the project. If you added any new files, they would not be compiled. I fixed the template and you can get the updated version here.
I just got back from the hospital last week. My wife and I had our son. Benjamin Scott Stahlhood, III. I have pictures up on my Web Gallery.
