It has been 13 years since iOS 1.0 was released. Here is a very graphical way to see the changes.
Thanks to Alexandre Colucci for posting this great blog. Follow his work!
https://blog.timac.org/2020/1122-comparing-iphone-os-with-ios-14-using-tree-maps/
Best VR Game of 2020? According to Road to VR, it is Half-Life: Alyx on Steam.
Iron Man VR on PSVR, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners for Quest, the best puzzle is Cubism.
https://www.roadtovr.com/road-to-vrs-2020-game-year-awards/
It is kind of interesting how technology affects human interaction.
At our house, if you want to have everyone be silent for a moment just say "Alexia...". Everyone has learned to stop talking so Alexa can hear your request clearly.
A Federal judge found security software Corellium does not violate Apple’s copyright.
Corellium provides a virtual iPhone so that security researchers search for vulnerabilities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/12/29/apple-corellium-lawsuit/
Corellium website: https://corellium.com
Another article: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apples-lawsuit-against-corellium-partly-210402490.html
I never heard of PlistBuddy until recently, it is an extremely useful undocumented tool.
Both macOS & iOS are filled with plist files, so a command-line app to edit them is great.
https://medium.com/@marksiu/what-is-plistbuddy-76cb4f0c262d
iOSDevCampDC 2020 continues to post videos from this year's online conference.
A zoom session with Connor Nelson, as he explains how to make Apple’s new Widgets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pi2aZXq5c
Not every patent Apple applied for means a new product, but looking at their ideas gives hints of what they are working on.
Here is an interesting website that tracks patents Apple has been granted.
https://www.patentlyapple.com
ps. I hope everyone's Christmas was great!
This has ramifications in all tech industries. Do consumers have the right to access the internal data of the item they purchased?
Imagine Hardware and Software manufacturers being ordered to release all internal documentation.
The law the voters passed: https://www.thedrive.com/news/37431/massachusetts-votes-to-expand-major-right-to-repair-law-force-oems-to-open-up-vehicle-data
The year is coming to an end, and so is the useful lifespan of these computer languages.
They won’t disappear forever, I still get requests for Fortran Jobs, but these languages will fade away.
https://levelup.gitconnected.com/top-4-dying-programming-languages-of-2020-1a4149753e92
Apple Alumni Jean-Louis Gassée discusses the “animated discussions” about the M1 release.
His column really spears the negative non-fans of Apple.
https://mondaynote.com/apple-silicon-m1-disruption-af11f639103a
Wow, a lengthy and detailed breakdown of all Apple mobile processors by Dezsö Sima.
This Hungarian researcher really documented the history of Apple processors.
Excellent article by Eric Yang on 3 different methods to blur an image on iOS.
UIBlurEffect, CIFilter, and Metal with GPU acceleration. Eric gives us source code, as well as Pros & Cons for each.
https://medium.com/better-programming/three-approaches-to-apply-blur-effect-in-ios-c1c941d862c3
Understanding Lifecycles is important! Vadim Bulavin's blog on SwiftUI Lifecycles is a great helper for this.
The tech exodus from Silicon Valley has been going on for a while, but it has just accelerated.
The expense of living in my home town makes hiring & living there difficult.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/13/tech/silicon-valley-moving-to-austin-miami/index.html
Recently the IGDA (International Game Developers Association) sponsored a web seminar on Game Software Patents.
They discuss the 2014’s Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank case, where they ruled implementing abstract ideas on a computer alone is not enough to be patentable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcvM0MrN7f4&feature=youtu.be
WIki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Corp._v._CLS_Bank_International
Stream.io provides a complete iOS tutorial on adding their Chat SDK to your apps.
Their API support messaging from a single person up to team/slack-style chat.
https://getstream.io/tutorials/ios-chat/
Chat API & SDK for Custom Messaging: https://getstream.io/chat/
This year's iOSDevCamp DC was entirely virtual, and now their videos are available online.
While smaller than some years due to COVID, I attended and enjoyed the session.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLUh0bIfk24ka31a-Go3smA
Yet another interesting project from the Swift organization, SwiftNIO SSH!
SwiftNIO SSH is a programmatic implementation of SSH to implement SSH-speaking endpoints.
https://swift.org/blog/swiftnio-ssh/
An excellent article explaining one of my favorite subjects, Genetic Algorithms.
Initial Population, Parent Selection, Crossover, Mutation, Termination. All the key components are explained.
Popping up in LA and some other locations, Free Blockbuster is a kiosk-based lending library for videos.
I never thought of it, but the original Blockbuster was a $3 billion business crash due to changes in tech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YcsQWwUx8U
Free Blockbuster Org: https://www.freeblockbuster.org
RoadToVR take on lawsuits Oculus will be facing.
The lawsuits deal with anticompetitive acquisitions and anticompetitive platform conduct, that will require divestitures of assets (companies)
https://www.roadtovr.com/ftc-sues-facebook-monopolization-oculus-vr/
Antony ”Skarred Ghost” Vitillo reviews Finding Pandora X, winner of the “Best VR Immersive User Experience” at the Venice Film Festival this year.
I have been curious about the stagecraft of 360 shows, it is the reverse of traditional theater-in-the-round.
https://skarredghost.com/2020/11/14/finding-pandora-x-review-vr/
Finder Pandora X Trailer: https://vimeo.com/458044473
The Call of Duty video game made $3 billion over the past year. More proof video games are bigger than films.
In comparison, the entire Avengers franchise made less than that over the past 12 years.
Activision press release: https://investor.activision.com/news-releases/news-release-details/call-duty-surpasses-3-billion-net-bookings-over-last-12-months
Combining iOS APIs is both fun and scary. Anupam Chugh wants to use PencilKit & MapKit.
A great intro to both technologies.
https://medium.com/better-programming/cropping-ios-maps-with-pencilkit-da7f7dd7ec52
Reading Popular Science's best tech of the years is an adult version of the Sears Wish Book!
If you don’t get the reference, look it up (or ask your parents).
https://www.popsci.com/story/technology/best-of-whats-new-2020/
YouTuber Colinfurze built fantastic modern Trebuchet.
It is only an average size for historical ones (“Warwolf”, the largest was 300-400’), but I do not know if anyone has ever made one out of modern steel beams!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgm9EzdCZXI
Things have changed thanks to COVID, but even before that, hiring good software developers was becoming near impossible.
Alex Cowan talks about how to identify someone who is good at their job.
Filing in the “Expected” file, Bloomberg reports Apple working on more powerful Apple Silicon chips.
M1 is all about power efficiency. Since desktops have more power than laptops, they can drive more powerful chips.
Kevin Williams gives us a history of MR/AR/VR in theme parks.
He divides their use into “props” (ex. Wizardry World’s wands) and “viewers” (ex upcoming Nintendo World AR Caps).
https://www.vrfocus.com/2020/12/mixed-reality-revolution-out-of-home/
I like Henry Cheng's breakdown of what makes Apple's website unique, and very memorable.
As he explains, Henry is not an Apple fan, but enjoys reading the websites. They might be doing something right.
Even with COVID, VR arcade games are being developed for LBE (location-based entertainment) venues.
Transformers: VR Invasion is the second VR game for the Transformer franchise.
https://www.vrfocus.com/2020/12/repel-the-decepticons-in-arcade-co-op-transformers-vr-invasion/
Donovan So gives a breakdown of what works & more importantly what doesn’t for Developer tools on Apple’s M1 computers.
More than anything, programmer tools touch the bare metal of the CPU.
I wondered how long it would take to get Wacom into the VR Market.
The expert on computer Pens has come out with pressure sensitive stylus controller.
https://www.roadtovr.com/wacom-unveils-vr-pen-built-next-creative-future/
Video: https://youtu.be/lul73Gytqvc
Super Nintendo Land zone will be coming to Universal Studio Japan next year.
Besides the impressive setting, the ride will have an AR element. I would love to see how they work that.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/30/21726093/super-nintendo-world-osaka-japan-opening-date-announced
Yes, Programmers have a sense of humor. Calling it Hilarious might be a bit strong.
How many of these do you think are funny? How many do you “get”? I am not 100%.
$27 What?!?! Anyone want to join me in a software Startup?
The new M1 MacBook Air test has it running Windows 10 FASTER than the Surface Pro X.
Taking advantage of Windows 10 on ARM, this shows the speed of Apple Silicon over the SQ2 ARM CPU.
Microsoft Team, their workspace chat & videoconferencing app, is being updated for switching between hardware.
What is interesting is that Team will not support CarPlay, recognizing the success and legitimacy of Apple’s car interface standard.
As Micah Bowers puts it, “Motion Is More Than Ornamentation”. He goes on in this article to describe good UX Motion Design.
I especially like his list of 12 Motion Design Principles for Digital Products.
https://uxdesign.cc/a-guide-to-motion-design-principles-7f05f10ccd79
Apple announces the best Apps of 2020 for both iOS and Mac.
I found it interesting the best apps were an exercise app (iOS) and a life scheduler app (Mac).
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2020/12/apple-presents-app-store-best-of-2020-winners/
I spoke too soon! Arecibo Observatory just collapsed.
This is a follow-up to yesterday's posting, the Arecibo cables snapped, and the suspended platform came down.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/12/arecibo-telescope-collapses-ending-57-year-run
Background video: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arecibo-observatory-radio-telescope-puerto-rico-collapses/
In case you missed, here is the recent “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC”. Well, without the Mac.
This was the tale end video shown at the introduction of the M1 Mac last month.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEvXVJHTQAk
What was for 50 years the world's largest single-aperture telescope (and a favorite villain hide-out) will soon be gone, due to age and damage by nature.
The Arecibo Observatory has been officially slated for deconstruction before it collapses on its own.
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arecibo_Observatory
Richard Moss, the author of Secret History of Mac Gaming, has a new project.
Shareware Heroes: Independent Games at the Dawn of the Internet is a crowdfunded book that many might enjoy.
https://unbound.com/books/shareware-heroes/
According to Reuters, Apple will try to move some iPad and MacBook manufacturing capacity out of China to Vietnam.
“Apple wants to diversify its supply chain due to the ongoing trade disputes between the US and China”.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/26/21721353/apple-ipad-macbook-foxconn-manufacturing-vietnam-report
This may be the biggest $$$ off for a Black Friday Tech Sale. $50,000!!!
A 98-inch Samsung TV is going for half off It’s normal obscene $100K price. Would that really make a difference? If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.
https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2020/11/27/21723138/samsung-98-inch-tv-deal-sale-black-friday-8k
European Union is about to go after various Tech companies with their Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts.
While I agree some tech companies (including Apple) need to change policies, the EU has been just as authoritative in their decisions. And not nearly as smart.
https://www.webpronews.com/eu-poised-to-crack-down-on-tech-giants/
Happy Thanksgiving!!! And enjoy...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsdVPN_qip4
What are you thankful for?
The better article don’t just give you a new tool to use, but also explain how it works, so you learn something.
John Sundell of Swift by Sundell has been digging into Combine, and we benefit from his explorations.
https://www.swiftbysundell.com/articles/extending-combine-with-convenience-apis/
Leandro Pérez uses analytics tools like Sitrep & XCLogParser to improve his Swift compile time.
The changes he talks about gave him a 40% improvement!
https://medium.com/flawless-app-stories/analyzing-and-improving-build-times-in-ios-5e2b77ef408e
Apple's recent Mac event ended with a visit from an old friend (they were missing Justin Long, I guess they could not afford him).
So I thought I would look back at the famous “Get A Mac” ad campaign (also called “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC”). Has it really been 14 years?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rV-dbDMS18
Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_Mac
Facial identification for other animals (bear, cows, monkeys), is this something that was really a requirement?
It is adorable to see the animation of Bear face locating. I had not thought of this use.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/22/tech/face-recognition-bears-cows/index.html
The Internet Archive has come to the rescue of an old obsolete Flash archive with a new emulator.
Flash was abandoned for good reason (speed, security, proprietary), but this solution brings back some of the old playfulness of Flash.
Library link: https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_flash
This amused me, clear cases for Class Apple computers, so you can see history.
Bit expensive, but I could see putting my old //e & Mac SE inside one.
https://maceffects.com/products/maceffects-clear-case-for-macintosh-se-se-30
Quinn Nelson of Snazzy Labs talks about Modbook from Axiotron, the only 3rd party pad to run Mac software.
This is amazing hardware was a failure, but still was pretty amazing, How rare? I never heard of it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AoX-5KIh9Q
Modbook site: http://www.modbook.com
Ahmed Ayoub has a great head to head analysis of two major franchise mobile apps.
They don’t get much bigger than Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and Marvel Strike Force.
https://uxdesign.cc/game-ux-analyzing-the-experience-of-two-major-mobile-games-89d91f91a57d
This is not a tech posting, but it is an intellectual property case I find interesting, regarding a recent lawsuit regarding DragonLance.
Wizard Of the Coast shut down authors Weis & Hickman, who had the right to continue to create Dragon Lance books. How should this have been handled?
Amazon is releasing an upgraded Echo Frame to everyone who wants it.
This is not AR glasses, but wearable, voice-controlled mobile computing.
Side note: By most estimates, the visual AR portion of the Google Glass experiment was a failure. However, the voice-controlled computing aspect of it, for things like communication, reference and personal assistant, was much more popular with the users/testers. I think there is a niche for this. Why they don’t make it like a pin, ala Star Trek communicator, I do not know.
As people become more familiar with SwiftUI, small features are starting to have a big impact.
Antoine van der Lee of Swift Lee explains creating view based animation with SwiftUI.
https://www.avanderlee.com/swiftui/withanimation-completion-callback/
I agree with the points that Mikhail Medvedev makes. Agile & Scrum do not automatically cause magic.
Not every development effort fits nicely into set boxes. Aiming for two-week sprints is a nice goal, people force to the meaningless deadline is not.
https://towardsdatascience.com/scrum-without-magic-8cbb07eb4026
Apple announced reducing their cut from 30% to 15% for app developers who make less than $1 million.
Obviously, this is aimed at small developers, but I am not sure I understand the logic that large developers should pay more.
Eight360’s high-end, motion simulator replicates the inertial & gravity force you feel for most driving/flying experiences.
Too expensive for the home market ($150,000 per year), but perfect for military & industrial use. Maybe in the future…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uzHazKkZ4o
Eight360 Website - https://www.eight360.com
Nuke provides a simple and efficient way to download and display images in your iOS or Mac app.
Here is a tutorial by Ehab Yosry Amer on working with Nuke using Swift Package Manager.
https://www.raywenderlich.com/11070743-nuke-tutorial-for-ios-getting-started
Nuke repository https://github.com/kean/Nuke
I have no idea who created this, but it is an Awesome resource for iOS Development.
“A curated list of awesome iOS ecosystem, including Objective-C and Swift Projects”
Associated Git Repository: http://github.com/vsouza/awesome-ios
If you are consider yourself a Software Engineer, you should really know these names.
And more importantly, you should know why they are significant for what they did.
Marvel artist JL Mast has posted numerous 360 VR cartoons to be view on desktop or by VR headset.
This is one of the first artists I have seen who has created drawing specifically design to be viewed in all directions.
https://kuula.co/profile/jlmast
Related page: http://mast360.com
A follow-up to the announcement of the Raspberry Pi 400 system, it is NOT selling for $70, everyone is selling it for $100. Also, you can’t buy one, since it is sold out everywhere I could try!
I was surprised Apple did not talk about it at this week's announcements, but AppleTV is available on PS4/5 & Xbox.
It is not often that Apple writes software for the game console market.
Tom Brant of PCMag provides an excellent tech review of what makes the M1 chip, also called Apple Silicon, so exciting.
Some of the details were explained at Apple’s announcement this week, but Tom explains even more details.
https://www.pcmag.com/news/what-is-the-apple-m1-chip
File this under unintended consequences, Monday stocks for several Video Game & Entertainment Stream companies dropped. The reason? The possibility of a COVID shot, that would allow people out of their homes, where they are now watching movies and playing tons of games. I would not have thought of that reaction to the good news.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/11/09/why-video-game-stocks-plunged-today/
Apple’s new M1 system on chip is not the first time they did this. Years ago, just before the Apple // line was retired, they gave us Mega II custom chip. It was essential an Apple //e system, only needing RAM & 65C02. The //e used an early version of it, but the advanced Gemini version was used on Apple // card for Mac LC product line. It allowed almost all of the immense Apple // software to run on the Mac LC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIe_Card
Mega II chip: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mega_II
