When I reserved my iPad, I selected Apple’s flagship store in Palo Alto for pickup. I had never quite understood the Apple line mentality. After all, most people could just save a lot of time and either order one online or wait a day or two. Now I see the light. Plus I absolutely needed to get a unit ASAP to test my software, Distant Suns. It was already live in the App Store and had over 80 downloads, so I needed to see what others were to...

Okay, okay, so why yet another column on beginning iPhone programming when the net is gravid with similar articles? Well, when I was asked to start a semi-irregular column by the kind folks at www.iPhonenes.com the general topic would be from an app author’s point of view. So I really need to start at the very beginning (from which I understand is a very good place to start). It was just about two years ago when the first version of the SDK...

I can’t tell you how I got these photos, but they come from a “trusted source” who claims that these could be of the much rumored “tablet” that Apple will introduce tomorrow. First off, sorry for the poor quality of the photos. But they obviously are of some new device in the Apple labs. The size is said to be about 8 1/2 x 11 inches. The screen seems to be flush with the left and right edges, while it leaves a...

In 1987, Steve Jobs introduced to the world the wonderful and somewhat puzzling NeXT “Cube.” It was designed as the computer for the college student who could also afford a $6000 machine with no floppy drive.  For all of the ridicule and head scratching the machine provoked, it pioneered a number of great technologies. Perhaps the most well known of these powers every Mac and iPhone now being made today: OS-X. One of the other less successful...

So it looks like the Apple fanboi community is whipping itself up to the near-ritualistic semi-annual frenzy in speculation over the much rumored, and denied, and rumored again tablet device. In the spy biz, it’s called “chatter.”  That is, when the communications circuits of various targets-of-interest come alive one can safely conclude that something big is about to happen. And the chatter on the Mac-circuits is deafening. In the weeks before...

It’s no secret that the iPhone has become a phenomenally successful development target among both seasoned professional engineers, and midnight hobbyist fanboys alike. Some of the most interesting and innovative mobile apps are delivered regularly, courtesy of the Appstore, and are just as likely to be developed by one guy after work with a six-pack of Mountain Dew as a large and well-financed software studio. As a result, ever since that...