Weblog of a “Switcher”

So the WWDC keynote speech has come and gone. I have to say I was a little bored with this one. They seemed to spend way to much time talking about all the applications that are going to be on the phone. Especially the medical software.

They did announce the 3G iPhone, but it's not going to be ready until July 11th. If the folks that were selling their iPhones actually did sell them, they now have to wait a little over a month before they can get a new phone.

I wonder if this means that Apple isn't going to be selling iPhones until July 11th now. That seems like a really bad idea to lose a whole months worth of sales just because they came out with a new phone. Do they really think they are going to reach their 10 million units sold by not selling them for a month? Hmm...

One thing I am really looking forward to is MobileMe. That is going to be really great and make .Mac really worth having. It's basically Microsoft Exchange for the Mac as well as Windows. That's the coolest part about all that. MobileMac works with Outlook in Windows so that regular home users have the power of Exchange available to them on their home computers and iPhones.

So, this was definitely one of the less interesting keynotes I have heard, but some interesting things coming done the road for sure.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: 3g, Apple, appstore, dotmac, iPhone, keynote, Wwdc

Well, actually for users of all web browsers that 1Password supports, which is pretty much all the mainstream and even some of the not so mainstream browsers.

The great program 1Password has updated their software to version 2.6 and added a great new feature to it's program that allows it's browser extension to test visited web sites against an online database of known Phishing sites called PhishTank.

It's great to see 3rd party software stepping up to the plate to help make our World Wide Web experience and enjoyable and safe as possible.

I have been a very happy user of 1Password for quite some time now and use it to hold Credit Card info as well as my wife's Social Security Number (I get asked for that number quite a bit since I have been seeing quite a few doctors lately).

With 1Password, you can take all your secure information and store it on your mobile device or iPhone in such a way that only you can access it. This feature has saved my behind several times now!

The program is only $34.95 and well worth every penny.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: 1password, anti-phishing, iPhone, Safari, Security

During my usual news surfing today, I cam across an article that basically questioned Apple's wisdom in choosing Objective-C for the language to use for it's iPhone SDK

"Did Apple Make A Mistake Choosing Objective-C
For iPhone SDK?" at Simon’s Blog:
DID APPLE MAKE A MISTAKE CHOOSING OBJECTIVE-C
FOR IPHONE SDK?
...
Recently, Apple bowed to the inevitable, and has released an SDK for developer testing. The language they chose to base the SDK around is Objective-C. This wasn’t a complete surprise - after all, it’s the ‘native’ language of Mac OS X. However, while it’s not a surprise, I wonder if it’s not a major strategic error on Apple’s part. The point is this: the Mac is a niche platform, and is especially niche in terms of numbers of developers building applications in Objective-C.
...

Normally I don't even bother to read such articles. This one, for some reason, caught my attention and I just had to wonder why Simon even wondered this.

Apple has had some serious success with it's OS X operating system. So much so, that when it developed it's mobile phone, the iPhone, it choose to use a stripped down version of OS X to drive it. As we have seen, this was a very good decision. The iPhone's user interface is now a standard that other mobile phone manufacturers are striving to emulate. Something that seems to happen a lot in the consumer electronics sector with products that Apple also has in that sector. The iPod and Macintosh come to mind here.

So now that they have OS X as a kernel for the iPhone, what language should they use for developing software for it? What else but the language that is used for OS X on their computers? Objective-C.

Since they choose Objective-C for the SDK a lot of library code used in OS X was able to be ported to the iPhone SDK so that Apple's developers could write applications for the iPhone very quickly. In fact, they use Xcode, Apple's free development environment, to develop applications for the iPhone. No need to create a new development environment, no need to create a new set of API calls. Everything was sitting around ready to be reused for the iPhone. Object Orientated programming at it's best.

Simon's point was that Objective-C isn't a very popular language compared to others being used for development. Now, he got his data from Tiobe Software, a company specializing in assessing and tracking the quality of software. Apparently, they index software development languages every month to see how they fair in the world of software development.

Based on this index for April 2008, Objective-C is 38. One behind BASH, a command-line shell scripting language.

Now, one thing that I have to wonder about this index is, who are they polling to get their data? Well, from what I can get from the site, it looks like they query search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo! as well as others and apply the results of the searches through normalization formulas to get the results they publish.

So, they are basing their index on how much people talk about a language. I wonder if they include posts about how bad a language is and the multitude of questions people as on the web for help with those languages.

He goes on to say that he doesn't feel that Objective-C is a bad language, he just feels that it's not popular. I have to wonder if he would feel better if Apple used (heaven forbid...) Java.

I have been spending time recently attempting to learn how to program the Macintosh, and possibly even the iPhone. I feel pretty comfortable with Objective-C at this point. There are still a few parts I need to understand before I start tackling the Mac and it's API What I have learned about Objective-C makes me really appreciate the language choice over many other languages they could have chosen. Let me give an example...

With Java, how many times have you gone to a web page that hosts a Java Applet and found it doesn't run due to an exception of some kind? It's not your fault, but it just died. Now, imagine you are on your iPhone and see a dialog pop-up that tells you that the program you are running threw a NULLPOINTER exception. How annoyed would you be?

With Objective-C, null pointer exceptions can't happen. Null pointers can be passed around, but the language pretty much just ignores them and moves on. No exception dialog, it just moves on. Now, this can be a bad thing if that null pointer was needed to perform a critical task. We all know that iPhone apps "crash". I have had Safari crash several times on me. The difference here is that the user doesn't know why it crashes, it just went away, and a simple touch of the icon will bring it back quite quickly.

Another very annoying issue with Java is it's garbage collection. Objective-C 2.0 can do garbage collection, but Apple has decided to disable the ability to use it with the iPhone. A very wise decision. The absolutely most annoying thing about Java is having to wait for the JVM to get around to cleaning up memory. Now this means that the iPhone could have a program that leaks memory in such a way that it uses up all the memory available for program execution. One the other hand, programs on the iPhone run very fast, way faster than any other mobile phone I have seen.

So, did Apple make a mistake choosing Objective-C to develop iPhone applications with? I have to say no, and I think Simon will see that I'm not the only one that feels that way when June comes and the iPhone Application store opens to show hundreds if not thousands of applications ready to download to iPhones.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Apple, iPhone, objective-c, Sdk

A friend of mine wrote up an interesting take on the value of some products and if they are really worth anything at all:

Radical Liberation: Worth What You Pay:
...
"If you’re interested in being able to do even more with your phone, like surf the web, then the iPhone quickly becomes worth the additional cost. Studies have already shown that even though other phones are capable of doing things like surfing the web it is only on the iPhone that people actually do such things regularly. That is no accident. If a user interface is so poor that people tend not to use a feature then, for all practical purposes, the feature might as well not be there in the first place."
...
A perfect example of this is the new Time Machine feature in Leopard. This is essentially a backup program, definitely nothing new in the world of personal computers. Not only have backup programs been available for decades, but every computer expert has pleaded with users to backup their important data. The reality though, according to a study by Apple of its customers, is that 90% of people do not backup regularly. (Regular, automated backups is pretty much the only way to have the backup you need when disaster strikes).
...

I would also say that some smart phones like Blackberry also fall into iPhone's category. However, I fully agree with the browsing part. I use my iPhone almost exclusively now for browsing when I am not in front of a computer. Even when my MacBook is just a few feet away. It's just easier and way more convenient. I would never ever consider browsing with any other phone, smart or otherwise. There really is something to having a real browser in the palm of your hand.

As to backing up home computers... Microsoft Windows Vista is suppose to have a backup solution that is pretty much always on. The interesting thing about it is that it's on for all versions of Vista as far as backing up goes, but is only accessible to restore on the most expensive versions of Vista: Business, Ultimate and Enterprise. This is great for businesses, but they already have backup solutions that work for them and really don't need something added on to that. Home users are where backing up a computer is really important and yet they don't allow Vista Home Basic or Home Premium to restore from the backups that Vista creates. Plus, there is the issue of the space those backups take.

I often wonder what was going thru the engineer's heads when they created this feature. I would love to know why they didn't allow home users access to such a useful feature.

There are folks out there that think that Time Machine is over the deep end when it comes to it's interface. The animation and windows that go off into infinity do seem a little over the top. However, those animations don't really slow down the feature all that much and really help the user understand what they are doing when it comes to restoring a file or folder. This also works for iPhoto, Address Book and other applications. It really gives the user a great idea of what they are about to do as well as helps them find a file or address that might have been removed my accident or somehow become damaged.

I would have to say that Apple has raised the bar for quite a few products that we use everyday. Phones, computers and even portable media players.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: backup, Backup Program, Blackberry, Cell Phones, computers, Home Computers, iPhone, Leopard, Macbook, Microsoft Windows Vista, opinion, Palm Of Your Hand, Personal Computers, product, Smart Phones, Time Machine, User Interface, Versions Of Vista, worth

There has been a lot of talk on the Apple blogs about a hacking contest where Charlie Miller won $10,000 plus a MacBook Air because he was the first one to hack into the machine and gain root access. How did he do this? He surfed to a test website he setup for the exercise with Safari. He managed this feet in just 2 minutes after CanSecWest security conference opened on the second day. No one was able to hack into any of the laptops setup for this purpose on the first day.

The way this contest was setup, if you can hack into one of the systems to gain root access you get prize money plus the system you hacked into. Hence the name of the contest: PWN2OWN. The first day was OS only attempts. The second day, the OS and software that is released with the OS are fair game, and on the final day, 3rd party software is added to the list.

Apparently, Microsoft Windows Vista was hacked on the 3rd day. No one managed to break into the 3rd system up for grabs, a Sony Vaio running the Linux distro Ubuntu.

I bring this up because one of my favorite bloggers to read brings up some valid points about security and Apple lax attitude for it. It has actually been a point of contention with myself an a lot of MacZelots. I constantly hear how secure OS X is due to it's Unix Kernel BeOS. Sure, that Kernel is probably very secure. However, there is a lot of software running on top of it that may no be so secure and the CanSecWest PWN2OWN contest shined a very bright light on that fact.

Safari is not clean software. This has been proven time and time again via Safari running on Windows machines and even the iPhone. It's hard to say how many problems are in other software that Apple produces, but Safari is a popular piece of software to attack these days. Especially since Apple all but forced it on Windows users recently.

This brings me back to my comment about a point of contention with MacZealots. See, I state that the reason Apple's OS X hasn't seen any major successful security exploits so far, is due to it's lack of market share. The old "security thru obscurity" argument. I have been ridiculed over and over again by my stating this.

What I mean by this is pretty simple. Since Apple owns a very small percent of the home computer market, virus writers don't see the OS X and the Macintosh as a viable platform for their attacks. Back in the 80's and 90's, virus writing was more of a personal pride thing. Hackers wanted to be able to claim that they were the ones to take down thousands of computers using their "handles" or monickers. Apple and Microsoft were targets back then.

Currently, virus writers are finding huge profit in the work they do. They write elaborate systems to allow spammers to get out their messages without drawing attention to themselves by using millions of "zombie" systems to do their dirty work for them. They are willing to pay big money to do this. In fact, there are viruses out there that actually have anti-virus software in their code to eradicate competing viruses so that only their virus is on the unsuspecting computer users system. They don't take computers down like before, but try their best to not be noticed at all.

Trust me when I say this is a big business. Spammers make millions of dollars spamming us, they are very willing to share some of that wealth to good virus writers to make sure that they have their way of sending out spam messages.

So what happens when Macintosh and OS X becomes more popular? Say when they see 30% market share or better? The Mac and OS X will wind up being a target just as much as Windows. Will that ever happen? I don't know for sure, but Apple is doing everything in their power to make Macintosh and Apple a very popular name. It also doesn't hurt that Microsoft has put out a dude of an OS called Windows Vista. Windows users are re-evaluating their decisions and seeing their friends running Tiger and Leopard and seeing that they don't have any problems with speed and usability.

The last couple of months, Apple has seen great sales numbers. Better than they have ever seen in their Notebook and Desktop computer lines.

If Apple keeps up this trend, they are really going to have to step up their security efforts in their software to make sure that they are secure. One thin Apple does have going for it is that when an exploit is discovered, it's fairly quickly corrected. Apple doesn't wait for "monthly updates" like Microsoft does. When they have a security update that needs to go out, they send it out.

So I am really hoping that Apple starts looking more closely at security and stops sitting on it's hands thinking that they are the best when clearly they have work to do.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Apple, Bloggers, Charlie Miller, Clean Software, Fair Game, Gain Root, Grabs, iPhone, Lax Attitude, Microsoft Windows Vista, Os X, Party Software, Point Of Contention, Prize Money, Reason Apple, root access, Safari, Security Conference, Security Exploits, Security Tag, Sony Vaio, Test Website, Unix Kernel, Windows Machines, Windows Users, Wit

Gruber has a post up on his site Daring Fireball about the new iPhone SDK and Apple's decision to not allow iPhone apps to run in the background...

Daring Fireball: The Flip Side of the Multitasking Argument:
"As I wrote this morning, I don’t think the ‘no background’ policy implies any spite or shortsightedness on Apple’s part. It’s simply the result of Apple’s decision to focus first and foremost on maximizing battery life and performance. Other mobile platforms, such as Android, may well have different priorities."

Now, I found out the hard way today that iPhone apps running in the background can kill the battery in a hurry. Apparently, an Apple application was running in the background for over 7 hours. I didn't know this and when I went to turn on my iPhone, I got nothing. I tried several ways to activate my phone only to get nothing.

I finally held the power button down for a few seconds and found out that my battery was down to a very small percentage left. Definitely in the red.

Fortunately I was at home and could plug the phone in to charge it back up. If I had been out, I would have been screwed.

Update: I feel I should point out here that up until this incident, I have not had any problems with my charge. I usually run about 1 day before needing to recharge. Usually that is about 2 hours of usage and 18 hours of standby time. This was the first time in the almost 9 months I have had the phone that the charge of my phone had all but drained out in less than a day.

Back to the original post:
Now, I can appreciate Apple's reluctance to allow apps to run in the background. However, I think they need to take a note out of their own rule book and fix their own apps so that they don't run in the background draining the battery of the phone.

You see, I don't know what I had done to cause the battery to be drained so quickly, but looking at my usage time, I saw that it had been running for over 7 hours. Now I know I hadn't been running my phone for over 7 hours. It was fully charged at 7am, and when I went to use it at 4pm, it was all but dead. I would have been using the thing pretty much all day.

So, Apple, fix your own apps please. I really can't have my phone die on me if I'm on the road. It's the biggest reason I have a cell phone in the first place. For emergencies!

Update 2: One of the author's of Twitterific: Craig Hockenberry, has more insights into why multitasking on the iPhone is a really bad idea.

(Via Daring Fireball .)

written by Dave M. \\ tags: 9 Months, Apple, Apps, Battery Life, Daring Fireball, Flip Side, Gruber, Hurry, iPhone, Mobile Platforms, Multitasking, Power Button, Priorities, Reluctance, Sdk, Several Ways, Shortsightedness, Spite, Standby Time, Usage Time

1.1.3 Update May Break Gmail (Nobody Wants A Styl.us): "Nobody Wants A Styl.us
Tips for using Apple's iPhone.
« HOW TO: Create WebClips Icons | Main

1.1.3 Update May Break Gmail
I got a call this morning from my Dad.

Him: Bad news.

Me: What?

Him: Your mother’s Gmail isn’t working on her iPhone.

Me: Oh no!

Him: Yes. Houston, we have a problem.

This basically ground my parent’s house to a halt this morning.

It turns out both of their Gmail accounts weren’t working, but they don’t appear to be alone in this. The specific error message is that imap.gmail.com isn’t available, and it just keeps checking for email. Outbound mail does go out, but there’s no verification that it goes.

I don’t really know what’s going wrong here, but if you recreate the Gmail account fresh on the iPhone, everything seems to work right again.

(Fortunately, the Gmail setup is pretty easy.)

(Via Nobody Wants A Styl.us.)

This is interesting. I have read a couple of blogs now that have mentioned that Gmail was messing up on their iPhones.

This seems odd to me. I haven't seen any issues at all with Gmail on my iPhone. Now, I know that problems can crop up for some people and not others, but it just seems odd.

Now I have had problems with IMAP Gmail not working correctly with Mail.app. It works really nicely with Thunderbird, but I had some strange problems when sending email's via Mail.app. They may have been fixed by now. I haven't spent the time to try it since the first time I tried.

I guess I should be glad that I am not seeing these problems. I use Gmail as my main email account and all my other email accounts forward messages they receive to my Gmail account so that I can have access to all my mail all the time.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Apple, Bad News, Blogs, Break, Dad, Email Account, Email Accounts, Error Message, Gmail Account, Houston We Have A Problem, Icons, Imap, iPhone, Iphones, Outbound Mail, Strange Problems, Styl, Thunderbird

Twitter / tomit:
"I just noticed, no memory upgrades for the AIR as well. about 2 hours ago from im

Seems like the MacBook AIR is a great accessory for a larger Mac. I need to get a new PRIMARY MAC first! about 3 hours ago from web

Glad they are just doing the Apple TV update! I can't wait!!! about 4 hours ago from im

Just some issues with the AIR... Mono speaker, video mirroring only, 1USB, no switchable battery, and no apple remote for frontrow!?!? about 4 hours ago from im

Did you know the MacBook AIR only has a 'Built-in mono speaker' for audio??? about 5 hours ago from im "

(Via Tomit's Twitter page.)

Seriously, what in the world do you people want! A computer the size of the iPhone with a full size keyboard/screen 4GB's of RAM expandable to 16GB's, 160GB HDD expandable to 2TB's, super awesome CD/DVD reader/writer, video capabilities capable of playing Crysis at 1920x1600 and capable of driving 2 30" wide screen displays, surround sound speakers builtin, weighing 2lbs and costing $500!?!?!

The MacBook Air is incredibly thin, weighing it at 3lb's, great internals and fits inside a manila folder! Sure it's expensive, what do you expect for a sub-notebook.

Sheesh people, what does it take to impress you guys!

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Apple Tv, Crysis, Frontrow, Internals, iPhone, Manila Folder, Memory Upgrades, People, Reader Writer, Screen Displays, Size Keyboard, Sound Speakers, Sub Notebook, Twitter, Video Capabilities

Here they come...

Apple, Jobs, AT&T sued over iPhone price cut, rebates: "Apple Inc., along with its chief executive and exclusive U.S. iPhone wireless partner AT&T, have been hit with a new lawsuit from a disgruntled customer who charges the trio with a variety of offenses stemming from the recent iPhone price cut." (Via AppleInsider.)

So how many suits does that make now? 20, 30, more?

I mean really, suing because a company changed the price of something? That never happens! Plus, suing because she was forced into a 2 year contract with AT&T with a $175 fee for breaking the contract. No other cell phone carrier does that either! My God! Why are these people allowed to waste our (taxpayer) money! They should be placed in jail for wasting the courts time and taxpayer money!

Excuse me while I go bang my head on a concrete wall...

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Amp, Apple, Appleinsider, Cell Phone, Chief Executive, Concrete Wall, God, iPhone, Iphone Price, Jobs, Phone Carrier, Rebates, Suits, Taxpayer Money, Wireless Partner

I don't often agree with Mr. Gruber and Daring Fireball, but boy do I agree with him on this topic: The Ringtones Racket!

During Apple's press event introducing the new iPods, Steve Jobs told all the Apple Zombies in the audience that iTunes would sell ringtones for way less than other vendors. The audience went nuts, as it usually does when God (Mr. Jobs) says just about anything. Yes, you can buy ringtones from the iTunes Store for the low everyday cost of $1.98! Even if you already own the CD that the song you want to make a ringtone out of, you "have" to buy it from the iTunes Store in order to turn it into a ringtone. This is quite a racket indeed. First you bought a CD, then you have to spend 99¢ to buy the song again, so that you can then pay yet another 99¢ for the privilege of cropping out as much as 30 seconds of that song to make a ringtone.

Mr. Gruber says that we should feel no remorse in making our own ringtones and using tools like like MakeiPhoneRingtone or iToner to move the ringtones to the iPhone. I fully agree which is why I purchased iToner. I probably would have used the free MakeiPhoneRingtone tool, but it wasn't out when I purchased iToner. I don't really mind. Ambrosia Software did a great job with iToner and is well worth letting them know it buy giving them $15. Plus, I would much prefer giving $15 to Ambrosia Software then 99¢ to the RIAA!

It's becoming clearer and clearer that the RIAA needs to get their act together. If they don't I get the feeling that they are going to lose more and more musicians over time to produce and promote their own music rather than selling their soul to the RIAA. At least that is what I personally hope will happen.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Apple Press, Audience, Daring Fireball, God, iPhone, Itoner, Job, Mr Gruber, Musicians, New Ipods, Nuts, Own Music, Privilege, Remorse, Riaa, Ringtone, Ringtones, Steve Jobs, Using Tools, Zombies