April 2012
3 posts
IVM-AwesomeSauce
I recently created a new GitHub named “IVM-AwesomeSauce” in which I intend to put snippets of useful code. Right now there’s one thing in there: a set of classes for doing custom animations between two UIViewControllers regardless of whether they’re being pushed in a UINavigationController or presented modally. You can find the source here. At some point I’ll dive...
The stages of software engineering
Beginner
Y = 10 ;
Intermediate
float add( float x, float y ) { return x + y; }
Y = add(5,5) ;
Expert
Y = 10 ; // this should really be a function
March 2012
1 post
Graphical iOS4 Included Typeface List →
January 2012
2 posts
6 tags
NameChk for iOS Launches! →
Hey folks, I’ve been working on an iOS version of namechk.com for a while and it’s just gone live on the app store! Check it out and if you like it please leave a review! If you don’t like it, send me a message and I’ll get to fixing it ;)
Anyway, enjoy!
Available for your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Direct link to App Store
November 2011
1 post
October 2011
5 posts
The wrong part of the brain →
There’s some interesting conversation going on about the value of skeuomorphic UI textures used in Apple-designed user interfaces. John Gruber thinks that some people are “over thinking this” and that the textures are “not designed to help users understand how these apps work. They’re just decoration.”
I agree with John in that I don’t think these designs directly help the user learn how to...
4 tags
Things I wish Siri could do
Apple’s new Siri intelligent agent for the iPhone 4S understands a bunch of useful stuff, but I wish it could do more. Here’s a list of tasks that I wish Siri could help me with:
“Remind me to give Mark his present when I see him next” — use Find My Friends to discover that Mark is close, then remind me to give him a present.
“What flights are leaving tomorrow for...
August 2011
2 posts
6 tags
"Has that been Photoshopped a lot?" →
chartier:
Ben Long, CreativePro.com:
“Image editing” starts as soon as you lift your eye to the viewfinder. What you choose to include in the frame is a massive edit of the scene before you, and it’s important to understand just how powerful this “cropping” of the real world can be.
Yup.
July 2011
2 posts
7 tags
A phone number formatting category on NSString
Actually, all the credit goes to Ahmed Abdelkader for this code. All I did was stick it in an easy-to-use category.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License which basically means you can use it free for any purpose as long as you give proper attribution.
NSString+PhoneNumberFormatting.m
//
// NSString+PhoneNumberFormatting.m
//
// Created by Mike Manzano on...
June 2011
5 posts
1 tag
1 tag
3 tags
May 2011
9 posts
2 tags
Logical punctuation: Should we start placing... →
I was wondering about quotes and punctuation the other day and waffling over what style I wanted to adopt for this blog. I think I’m going with the logical/British style.
6 tags
Apple's goal is to make happy customers, not to...
Erika Morphy over at Forbes recently wrote about her disappointment with Apple’s retail revamp in Apple (Finally) Jumps on the Point-of-Sale Bandwagon. She’s disappointed because “… in truth, there is much more Apple could do to for the customer [sic] at the point of sale.”
However, it seems to me that Erika’s simply upset that Apple’s store update isn’t cool enough for her. Her “real-life”...
6 tags
7 tags
Review of The Glif iPhone Stand & Mount
I’ve been a fan of the Glif iPhone stand & mount since the original Kickstarter project was created to fund its development. I’ve had several case stands in the past and to date they’ve been flimsy, bulky or otherwise inflexible. The Glif is solidly constructed and has no extraneous hinges or attachments that could easily break. It’s a solid piece of molded,...
5 tags
The state of social
Some interesting info regarding the evolution of social networking. Interesting that Facebook is more powerful than Twitter at getting people to links. I see this effect in my case because I tend to pay better attention to posts in Facebook due to social pressure to keep up with friends and family. However, in feel no such pressure to pay attention to people I follow.Amplify’d from...
March 2011
1 post
5 tags
Microsoft's Problem
Uh huh. And the answer to global warming isn’t reducing our carbon footprint, it’s finding other planets to travel to and inhabit. And the answer to world hunger is a magic plant we haven’t invented yet.
Microsoft’s problem today isn’t that it doesn’t have a grand vision, but instead a lack of skill in balancing these ideas with what can be productized and put...
February 2011
3 posts
5 tags
30%, the long tail and a future of serialized...
W/R/T paying videographers. programmers, etc. You don’t need programmers all the time when the publishing platform is established. You don’t manufacture a printing press every time you print a magazine. The addition of video is not necessary for online magazines. They’re nice, but not needed for the digital magazine to have value. That’s what YouTube’s for.
Now, the...
2 tags
http://idevrecipes.com/2011/02/10/exploring-iphone-... →
Just posting this because I might use it later.
January 2011
4 posts
3 tags
The Highball for Tumblr app will focus on content...
Tumblr blogging from the iPad is difficult because of the limitations imposed by the Safari web browser. Uploading images is impossible, and the iPad’s limited memory renders Safari dangerous for composing anything but short posts—you might switch to a new tab, come back, and find all of your work gone because Safari flushed its memory and reloaded the page.
The apps available on the App...
December 2010
5 posts
Apple Shuts Down Mac OS X Download Listing, Moving... →
macsfuture:
Well, its the end of an era. Apple is shutting down the Mac OS X Download Page on its website soon and asking all developers to use the new Mac App Store. The new Mac App Store will be released on January 6, 2011.
But here is the rub. The Mac OS X Download page lists lots of third party programs that might not makes the cut for Apple’s Mac App store. For example, in the utility...
The Onion names the iPad as one of the "Most... →
Android's gift to Apple - Apple 2.0 - Fortune Tech →
macsfuture:
Fortune has an interesting article out which mines data from a company Asmyco. According to the analysis, Android phones are helping Apple maintain its high price on iPhones. The point of the article seems to be that Android phones are growing at the expense of “feature” phones, or dumb cell phones. Android phones sell at at a higher price than “feature” phones, and this means...
November 2010
5 posts
5 tags
The New MacBook Air is Faster than You'd Think
So tempted to buy one now…Amplify’d from techcrunch.comBut here’s the really crazy thing. It’s not just the size of the thing that I love so much (I have the 13-inch model) — which is amazing — it’s the speed. This thing boots up in less than 15 seconds, ready to go. My i7 iMac with 8 GB of RAM takes something like 2 minutes. My i7 MacBook Pro takes at least 30-45 seconds, and it has an SSD...
October 2010
2 posts
5 tags
On HP Slate vs iPad
Two points:
It is all about the apps, and Windows has more apps. BUT, they’re not optimized for a tablet. This has been the problem with slate PCs all along. No change here.
Second: comparing the HP slate with a ruggedized tablet is stupid. iPad is what the world now believes a tablet looks like in price and performance, regardless of whether it’s enterprise or consumer. iPad is...
5 tags
Is iPad the new Flash?
I somewhat agree. I haven’t found a magazine or newspaper on the iPad yet that’s much better than just a plain old web page or Instapaper. However, I think this has more to do with newspapers and magazines not adopting “Internet time”. I don’t want to have to wait for a new issue every month. I want well-laid-out and well-thought-out articles as they’re...