The Blog of Matthew Baxter-Reynolds

Really good experience at the Apple Store

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 21:01:33 +0000

Credit where credit is due – I’ve had a problem with my iPad since I got it where the screen reports exteraneous “touch” signals from time-to-time – imagine typing away and the cursor flying off somewhere because the screen believes that you’ve touched on some other area of the screen.

I was imagining a nightmare fight at The Genius Bar of the Milton Keynes Apple Store, but credit to the guy who helped me – he typed on it for about 30 seconds, he saw the cursor move and ordered me a replacement straightaway. (I must say that this problem happens really quite rarely – once or twice in a heavy-usage day, so this was lucky.)

Really good!

MonoDroid – looking awesome

admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 20:58:06 +0000

I’m delighted to be able to say that I’ve been invited to participate in the MonoDroid private preview programme, and I must say it is looking totally and completely awesome. It’s really going to shake things up.

First volume of Multimobile Development nearly ready to go to press

admin — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:22:12 +0000

After months of work, particularly by the guys at Apress, the first of what will now be two multimobile development books is ready to go to press.

During development we realised that there was too much to say to fit it all into one book, and so there are now two! The first book covers Android and iOS and will be out in October. The second book covers Windows Phone, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and HTML5 and will be out in February.

The source code for the book has also been migrated over to github from Google Code… mainly because github is singularly awesome.

A mention on Developing for the iPhone and Android: The pros and cons

admin — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:40:36 +0000

Jonathan Hassell has written an article for Computer Weekly on development for iOS and Android, and gives me and my book a mention: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178684/Developing_for_the_iPhone_and_Android_The_pros_and_cons.

First chapters of Multimobile Development book now available on Apress Alpha program

admin — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:44:16 +0000

The first ten chapters of the book are now available on the Apress Alpha program. This is a program whereby you commit to buying the ebook at the normal price, but you receive PDFs of each of the chapters as they become available. It’s good for readers as it gives you access to the material before the book is committed to press. It’s good for me and Apress because it allows us to get great feedback on the book, again before it’s committed to press. The book can be found here: http://www.apress.com/book/view/143023198x.

iPad

admin — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:53:08 +0000

I’m writing is on my iPad, which I have had for a couple of days and I can confidently say that it is a *fantastic* piece of kit. I bought if off the back of an independent survey that came out with the result that only a tiny percentage (1.5%) of people regretted buying one and I can really see why.

People have been asking me how I would describe it, and on the way to work this morning I thought of one way to describe it. I think the iPad is to traditional computing devices what the mobile phone is to telephony.

The iPad brings your data one degree closer to you than is possible with traditional computing devices. Just like the mobile phone changed interpersonal communications by decreasing the virtual distance between you and people who wanted to communciate with you, the iPad (and the devices that come after them) decreases the virtual distance between you and what you own and what you want to have access to in the cloud.

Importantly, the iPad is not a big mobile phone and it’s not a small laptop – it’s a new thing that as yet doesn’t have a name.

In ten years time we’ll look back at the age before we had iPad-class devices and think “how did we manage without these” just as we wonder what we ever did before mobile phones.

New book project – Multimobile Development: Building Applications for any Smartphone

admin — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:04:30 +0000

For those who don’t know, I have a new book project with Apress. Multimobile Development: Building Applications for any Smartphone is a book that takes you through how to build the *same* application for iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone 7 and BlackBerry. The purpose is to create a reference guide where if you know how to do something on Platform A, you can find out easily how to do it on Platform B. (Some people who are wondering about moving from Windows Mobile 6.x to a platform other than Windows Phone may find this book particularly helpful.)

I have setup an separate site for the book, which you can find at http://www.multimobiledevelopment.com/. The book shows you how to build an application that connects to a service hosted on that server, so on that site you’ll find references to the service, and links through to Google Code that’s hosting the code used in the book. (The code for the book is published under the MPL.) Over time there will be sample chapters and other free stuff. Apress are also offering the book through their Alpha Program which gives early access to the content as it works through their sausage machine and becomes a real book. If you subscribe to the RSS feed on that site you can keep up-to-date with progress and news.

Dive into HTML5

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:06:35 +0000

Excellent mini-site on HTML5 features, including a library that makes detection easier Dive into HTML5.

Also… beautiful presentation.

Steve Jobs’ thoughtful/thought provoking Thoughts on Flash…

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:50:03 +0000

Here’s a link to an Engadget article explaining in more detail why Apple is not fussed about having Flash on the iPod/iPhone/iPad platform…
Thoughts on Flash.

Of note:

Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.

We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.

This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.

Frankly, it makes sense.

For some balance, here’s some thoughts from Miguel de Icaza on the restrictions on the SDK and a ZDNet article on the same topic.

Handy list of countries in CSV format

admin — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 06:33:56 +0000

Need to present a drop-down list of countries for a registration form? Here’s a CSV file of countries for you to enjoy. http://www.floresense.com/resc_center/?art=1360.