GameBoy Advance 20th Anniversary
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the GameBoy Advance here in the US. I have some fond memories of that console and it’s a little hard to believe that it’s been 20 years already since it came out. I was already a big fan of Nintendo consoles at that point and had been anticipating the release of the GBA for a few years. My GameBoy and GameBoy Color where heavily used throughout my teenage and early adult years. I also picked up a SNES and later a Nintendo 64. I was ready for Nintendo’s new “handheld SNES” and was not disappointed. I still remember being shocked at how well Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 ran on this little battery powered device. I wasn’t as fond of the dimly lit screen, but this was a small price to pay for having this much power that could fit in pocket (back when we didn’t have iPods or smartphones taking up the space).
Jun 11, 2021 Read More »
Site Update
Finally after six long years, I’ve gotten around to updating things here. You should now see that TLS has been enabled. I have more plans for content here as I can get to it. Stay tuned.
May 09, 2021 Read More »
nstimer for fun and profit
Let’s talk about NSTimer. It’s a core class that every Apple developer needs to use. And yet, despite that, it’s
still misused regularly. We’ll start with the basics.
Nov 20, 2015 Read More »
about
Hello! Stay awhile and listen!
Nov 16, 2015 Read More »
iPhone 5 Processor
There has been some speculation on the net about what sort of processor is in the A6 SoC found in the iPhone 5. The two dominant choices are either a quad core version of the Cortex A9 found in previous versions of the Apple SoCs or a new dual core version of the Cortex A15, which until now has not been found in any shipping product. Without access to actual devices, it would seem the odds are stacked against us in determining what the actual CPU is.
Sep 13, 2012 Read More »
WWDC iOS Predictions
It’s the eve of WWDC and what would it be without a few predictions? Here are the things that I expect to see for iOS at WWDC this year:
- Syncing and OS updates with iTunes. This one really seems like a no brainer to me. I figure I’ll at least have one thing right on this list with this one.
- OpenCL support. Apple didn’t increase the GPU power as much as they did with the iPad 2 simply for gaming. I would be surprised if iOS 5 doesn’t have OpenCL support for at least the A5, possibly the A4 as well.
- Even better multimedia APIs. This is one area where iOS has a huge lead over Android, IMO. And I don’t think that Apple will sit still to allow them to catch up. Looking particularly for more encoding APIs, even better access to the iPod library (ability to add content, more content types, etc) and hopefully better integration with the audio controls – I would like it if 3rd party apps could show metadata as well, like title, artist and album artwork.
- iCloud APIs With the introduction of iCloud, I would expect Apple to provide APIs for apps to use for synchronizing across devices and to access the user’s iDisk (or whatever it gets renamed to) storage.
- Participation in Back To My Mac. If the rumors are correct about the new TIme Capsules playing a major role in wireless sync, they are almost certainly using Wide Area Bonjour to allow the devices to find those Time Capsules. Which means that the iOS clients should also be able to see the Macs as well. In fact, I’ll go for a bit of a stretch here and say that iTunes Home Sharing will also be extended to use Wide Area Bonjour and that the iOS clients will also be able to see those machines from anywhere on the Internet as well. But I doubt that Apple will talk much about that since for the average user, uploading the music to a server that is always up is a better solution than having a Mac running 24/7 in their home or office.
- More privacy settings. If Apple has learned anything from the recent location-gate, it’s that giving users more control over their privacy is a good thing. Right now iOS notifies you when your location data is being requested. I would like to see this extended to Address Book data as well. I don’t want to find out that an app accessed my contacts and used them to build a database of email addresses for spam. Give me the option to deny an app access to my contacts, just as we already can for location. Just over 24 hours away and we’ll find out if I got anything right on this list. I’m certainly hoping for a few off this list.
[EDIT: I realized that I forgot my “one-more-thing” prediction – App development for the Apple TV. This is clearly a device intended for much more than Apple currently allows it to do. An Apple TV app store is almost a given at some point. Perhaps this year’s WWDC is that point.]
Jun 05, 2011 Read More »
iOS Audio Queue Tip of the Day™
I just spent a few hours tracking this one down and I figured I would share for anyone who might come across this on Google.
If you are using Audio Queues under iOS to stream audio and you want the queues to continue playing when the screen is locked, your buffer size must be at least 4096 samples. Apple has documented this in QA1606 for Audio Units, but it wasn’t immediately clear that this also applies to Audio Queues.
Nov 11, 2010 Read More »
Apple, Adobe and Flash
“Like the Ministry of Truth, it appears that Apple is deliberately attempting to usurp the meaning of the word Flash in the computing industry and redefine it.”
Didn’t Macromedia/Adobe usurp the meaning of the word Flash first? Flash the software has been around since 1996. Flash memory has been around since the early 1980s. Why is Apple suddenly the one “usurping the meaning of a term” for using flash memory to describe the technology that they are using in their products? This isn’t even a case where the term has fallen out of common usage.
Oct 22, 2010 Read More »
iPhone 4
I haven’t said much on here lately, but I figured that I would add to the stream of reviews, criticism and praise for the iPhone 4. I picked mine up last Thursday at one of the local Apple stores, and despite a few problems with iTunes (error 13019) and that my new 32GB iPhone 4 can’t hold as much content as my old 32GB iPhone 3GS, it’s been an overall pleasant experience. Apple really does have the migrating between iOS devices down at this point – I have content that I created on my 16GB 1st gen iPod touch back in 2007 on my iPhone 4 still. I have text messages that I sent when I first got an iPhone in 2008. Apple has made it so easy to upgrade the devices that at times it doesn’t feel like you got a new phone – everything is exactly where you left it.
Jun 30, 2010 Read More »
MacRumors: Adobe CEO Responds to Steve Jobs’ ‘Thoughts on Flash’
MacRumors: Adobe CEO Responds to Steve Jobs’ ‘Thoughts on Flash’
Narayen again returned to his claim that Flash is an open standard, calling Jobs’ claim of it being closed “amusing”. Adobe’s view of the world is multi-platform, allowing it to provide developers with tools to easily deploy their content across many devices and platforms, a concept that may not to Apple’s benefit in trying to lock customers in to its ecosystem.
Apr 29, 2010 Read More »