iPhone Development

I began reading Dave Mark and Jeff Lamarche's Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDX last night. They've set up a forum for the book: http://iphonedevbook.com/forum.

What I've learned so far:

1. must have a mac running Leopard (OS X 10.5.3 or later)
2. need to sign up to become a registered iPhone developer at http://developer.apple.com/iphone/
3. must download the free SDX to get Xcode (Apple's integrated development environment [IDE]) and a simulator (to run most iPhone apps on Mac. The free option is a good learning tool, but it does not allow you to download your apps onto your iPhone. It also does not let you distribute your apps in Apple's App Store. To do these things, there are two options: Standard ($99) or Enterprise ($299) programs. It sounds as though I would want the Simulator or the Standard program.
   
4. The book also recommends signing up for your program right now. Apparently, the approval process can take a while, although I'm not sure why.
5. My "oh crap" moment: The book "assumes you already have some programming knowledge." I DON'T! "It assumes that you understand the fundamentals of object-oriented programming.... It also assumes you are familiar with the Objective-C programming language." What??

Anyone else panicking yet?

Twitter and Interface Culture

While reading the new issue of TIME (15 June 2009), I was struck by Steven Johnson's article "How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live" and his description of Twitter as providing users with a "terrible first impression" but also having "unsuspected depth" and being "strangely satisfying." All of these comments I've heard uttered from first-time Twitterers. He also points out that "the key development with Twitter is how we've jury-rigged the system to do things that its creators never dreamed of."

With no personal knowledge of his earlier work, I began reading his chapter "Infinity Imagined" in his book Interface Culture (1997). Obviously Twitter was not around when he was writing the book, but some of the language he uses seems to foreshadow Twitter. For example,

"the power of manipulation if the sine qua non of the modern computer" (also like how we've manipulated Twitter to be what we want/need it to be)

In describing the future of interface design, he says (in 1997) that "new interfaces will strive for disorientation ... or ... new ways of orienting, so new that they confuse on first encounter." This is Twitter!! He goes on to explain: "The interface subcultures of the future will offend the traditionalists by being too difficult," or "User-hostile." This flies in the face of usability studies and user-friendly interfaces (too difficult rather than ease-of-use). Twitter may make a terrible first impression, but it is challenging us, and that may be why some of us end up liking it.

Apps for Magazines

I've been thinking more about magazine apps, what other magazines are doing, and whether a magazine can be user-friendly on an iphone. One article I read is skeptical about whether replicating print editorial in digital formats will sustain magazine publishing (
http://platform.idiomag.com/2009/05/top-magazine-iphone-apps/), suggesting that magazine apps should be something different or additional to the print-based version.

I'm not sure I agree. Part of the joy of a Kindle is being freed from the need to carry these paper copies around. Wired seems to make a good stab at an app, but it is not a replica of the magazine, but rather product reviews, videos, and blog postings. Texterity (now www.coverleaf.com) is offering (free for now) an iPhone optimized version of it’s online magazine-reading service. No plugins, no flash, just an easy-to-use browser interface. The magazines appear exactly as they would in paper form, only they are searchable, shareable, and linkable.

Other sites I've consulted:
http://www.apple.com/webapps/entertainment/texteritymagazines.html
http://cultofmac.com/magazine-app-is-a-sign-of-magazines-to-come/7527
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/01/zinio-introduces-iphone-portal-for-popular-magazines.ars
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2007/09/magazines-for-i/
http://info.texterity.com/info/2008GilbaneReport/
http://www.texterity.com/digital_publishing_insights/

Of course, Kindle is already doing this, and amazon.com lists many magazine subscriptions: http://www.amazon.com/Magazines-Journals-Kindle/b?ie=UTF8&node=241646011. If you have Kindle for iPhone, though, and try to buy one of these mags, you get the following error: "Periodicals such as newspapers, magazines, and blogs are not available on Kindle for iPhone at this time." Wonder why?

Zinio promises an app (http://img.zinio.com/iphone/info/), but I can't find it for download, and maybe they've only released the desktop version:
http://www.iphonehacks.com/2007/11/iphone-zinio.html

iPhones, Mobility, and Blobjects

I am really excited about ENGL 5376. I am totally addicted to my blobject, my iPhone. I do not know how I survived without it, especially during my past classes or May Seminar. I am able to entertain myself, find what's near me, read PDFs before class, look up information, phone my mom, and even read books. I also appreciate that I can do all of this anywhere (thanks, AT&T, for expanding your network).

I had not heard the term blobject before last week. I found a short description on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blobject. One of my favorite blobjects at the moment is this cool water bottle. I bought some at the store last week. It's really delightful to hold.


I will admit a little trepidation at the idea of building an app. My amazon.com book FINALLY arrived this weekend, and I stated pursuing Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK. It looks hard! Some of my thoughts (dreams?) for apps I'd like to see include, in no particular order:

• an editor's app: like a Chicago Manual on-the-go
  
• Intercom online app
  
• app for tracking editorial submissions
• one email app (like I do with Entourage)
• parking goddess app (tells you where the closest spot is)

I will keep thinking about these, as they may all be too big for an 8-week course. Thoughts?