Wednesday 29 December 2010

Broken Record

I’ll say it again and again, but I am getting fed up with all these manufacturers all claiming that their tablet will be an iPad beater. Yet they are comparing as usual their offerings to the current model of the iPad.

They did the wise thing last year and waited for Apple to release the iPad before releasing the models that they previewed at CES. But Apple surprised them then not with just what the iPad was but in the thing that killed off most of the offerings in having a $400 version of the iPad. Everyone had been planning on the rumoured price point of between $800 - $1000. When Apple came well under that they killed off a lot of the competition who just weren’t able to compete.

The $400 iPad also forced Amazon to drop the price of the Kindle. Which was a positive move for the Kindle as sales of it have increased since. If it had remained at it’s previous price it would of died from the competition of the iPad.

Now we have RIM with their vapourware that has been delayed from the planned launch of early next year because they have technical issues with the battery life. Apparently it isn’t very good, and doesn’t compare very well with the current iPad battery life (10 hours on the wifi model). And as I have pointed out all their rhetoric has been to compare their vapourware (which no one has had hands on with, and now we know why) with the current iPad. By the time the RIM offering hits the streets iPad2 will be imminent or will have just come out.

That’s a dangerous game to play for a manufacturer to launch in the shadow of an Apple product release. Look how well that worked out for Palm with the Pre (we will over look the under powered hardware). 

Samsung tried to distinguish their tablet from the iPad rather well I thought. They made the screen smaller (7”) so it was more portable, and gave it cameras (which apparently aren’t that great). But then they go screw it all up in the pricing and letting mobile operators control it. The Tab is more expensive than the iPad and you get tied up with a two year contract!! Yes I know that UK mobile companies are now doing similar deals on the iPad, but the iPad initial cost is cheaper than that of the Tab.

I think that the wise manufacturer should stop comparing their unreleased product with the current iPad. I’d even go so far as to stop mentioning the iPad all together in relation to their product. How about just concentrating on what your tablet will do well, and why I should buy it, instead of trying to compare it to a moving target.

iPhone Development

Well over on my main blog (whitespider1066.com) there is a semi development diary for an iPhone app I am writing going on. The app I am writing is for lovers of the outdoors, and will allow them to fetch the mountain weather reports that are produced for hill walkers and also the avalanche warnings that are also given into one place instead of having to visit a couple of sites and hunt the information down.

I try not to get too techie on there, well I know it is being read by none techie folks.

This iPhone app is my first and a learning experience. My references during this learning curve are “iPhone Programming: The Big Nerd Ranch Guide”, and “Programming in Objective-C 2.0”. But along with the printed written word, I am using the Winter and Autumn 2010 Stanford iPhone Programming lectures from iTunes U, and the Apple Developer documents (which I download as pdf’s to refer to later offline).

I really can’t praise Stanford University enough though for putting up the lectures that they do. They are a fantastic resource for learning from.

Now I have to say that I am enjoying the coding (it’s nice to be doing it for fun again, but that’s another story). I have ideas and notes for a couple of further apps. And I will start them once I have released this first project. Not decided which will be the first yet.

Friday 24 December 2010

Merry Christmas

Well the subject line says it all really. I want to wish the readers of this blog, many who are also friends and family (who will also have to put up with this message in several formats) a very very Merry Christmas.

I hope you all have a great day, that Santa has bought you lots of goodies, and that your time with loved ones is stress and argument free.

The mutts and I will be out later braving the cold and remembering departed friends and companions as we stroll round. Then we will pig out and quaff liquids in vast quantities until we are fit to bursting, followed by trying to burst ourselves with chocolates and other snacky bits while watching some movies and playing video games.

Have a great day folks.


-- Could be remote blogging or just too lazy to fire up laptop/Macbook/netbook. But still this has been posted from my iPhone 4.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Thinking Aloud (again)

Knocked this up in Interface Builder after seeing a tweet yesterday and a brief follow up email exchange with the person that did the tweet.



At the moment no code is behind the various buttons.
However knocking up the look has enabled me to get how I want it to work in my head.
But if my Christmas project goes to plan you'll get some regular updates showing the progress.
At the moment the prospective app has the catchy name of mwaaw. It's an abbreviation of what it will do. Which I will reveal more of in the next couple of weeks.
In the meantime I'll leave you puzzled and confused as to what the app will do.

-- Could be remote blogging or just too lazy to fire up laptop/Macbook/netbook. But still this has been posted from my iPhone 4.

Sunday 5 December 2010

The iPhones First Break Out Game




No one has done this yet but I'm declaring Angry Birds the very first big breakout iPhone game.
So what do I mean by breakout game? Well a title that started life exclusively on a platform that becomes so popular it is known by users of other systems, it gets ported to those systems and is just as popular on them to. Plus it has lots of spin offs to, like toys and cartoons etc.
Angry Birds is that game on the iPhone. Since it's release it has become massive. So massive that Microsoft felt when launching Windows Mobile 7 they had to show in advertising that they too would have Angry Birds available for it (later to be withdrawn when pointed out by the developer it wouldn't be).
You can buy Angry Bird plush toys, fans have made cakes, there are plans for a cartoon, and there is even going to be a world wide Angry Birds day on the 11th December.
No other iPhone game has managed to capture the imaginations of others like this.
In fact we could be witnessing the birth of a new classic character following in the footsteps of other greats like Mario, Pacman etc.
Yes I think Angry Birds has become that big and popular already.
Now I don't know much if anything about the developer Rovio. But I love the fact that a small developer (I'm assuming they are compared to EA etc) has come up with such a massive hit, while the likes of EA, Capcom, Activision etc are struggling to make an impact on the mobile platforms.
Well done Rovio, thanks for a great game and you deserve the success.


-- Could be remote blogging or just too lazy to fire up laptop/Macbook/netbook. But still this has been posted from my iPhone 4.

Saturday 4 December 2010

My Current Favourite iPhone Games




Just a quick post showing which iPhone games currently are my favourites.

As the screen shot of my favourite games folder shows they are mostly what would be classed as "casual games".

These are the games I keep coming back to, the majority of them support the Apple Gamecenter ( the iPhone version of Xbox Live - but free).

At the moment the two I'm playing the most are Angry Birds Seasons (Christmas update just came out - despite the false information to the otherwise given out by Leo Laporte on this weeks TWiG), and Zombieville USA.

So what are your current favourite iPhone games?

-- Could be remote blogging or just too lazy to fire up laptop/Macbook/netbook. But still this has been posted from my iPhone 4.