EagerEyes Shorts

Musings on visualization, photography, programming, etc. that are too long for Twitter but too short for (or don't fit) my visualization website, EagerEyes.org. Part of my vanity website, kosara.net, which is most notable for hosting my list of publications. If you still want to know more, see my university page at UNC Charlotte, and/or follow me on Twitter.

April 29th 2010

7 notes

From Wired’s story on the guy who found and sold the 4G iPhone to Gizmodo, Brian Hogan. He seems to be blaming Gizmodo for leading him to believe that selling it (or “giving them access”) was okay. This is going to get pretty ugly if it goes to court – and it looks like it will.

Posted at 7:19pm and tagged with: apple, iphone,.

“
A friend of Hogan’s then offered to call Apple Care on Hogan’s behalf, according to Hogan’s lawyer. That apparently was the extent of Hogan’s efforts to return the phone.
”

April 9th 2010

9 notes

This is an almost completely nonsensical “infographic” about Apple’s iPad. It’s a collection of random facts, many of them represented in the wrong way (see the pie chart on app prices, for example). It’s no wonder people are getting weary of the flood of infographics. Many of them are like this: good-looking but devoid of any content.

Shame on you, businessinsider.

In related news, see my posting on the Visualization Cargo Cult.

Posted at 9:24pm and tagged with: apple, ipad, infographic,.

This is an almost completely nonsensical “infographic” about Apple’s iPad. It’s a collection of random facts, many of them represented in the wrong way (see the pie chart on app prices, for example). It’s no wonder people are getting weary of the flood of infographics. Many of them are like this: good-looking but devoid of any content. Shame on you, businessinsider. In related news, see my posting on the Visualization Cargo Cult.

June 10th 2009

How is this possible? Do I have a magic battery? It’s not even a fluke or a malfunction of the program, the battery still lasts for four hours or so. Any ideas?

Posted at 1:31pm and tagged with: Apple,.

How is this possible? Do I have a magic battery? It’s not even a fluke or a malfunction of the program, the battery still lasts for four hours or so. Any ideas?

June 9th 2009

Reblogged from chartier|7 notes

chartier:

I love Nelson’s body language when showing off some of the iPhone 3G S features in Apple’s new Guided Tour. Take his VoiceOver demo that starts around the last half of minute 5.

At 6:07, Nelson asks the iPhone: “What song is this?” But he moves and smirks as if to say “BOOYA PRE, ANDROID, BLACKBERRY, AND SYMBIDORK! WHAT YOU BITCHES GOT NAO?!”

True, that guy is pretty good. Do they really recruit these guys from Apple Stores? I find that hard to believe.

What bugs me about the demo is the scenes where he’s “outside,” holding the phone perfectly still. The thing is obviously mounted somewhere, and the hand doesn’t move, either. The compass part is even worse than the video demo. It really freaks me out.

Posted at 4:49pm and tagged with: Apple, iPhone,.

chartier: I love Nelson’s body language when showing off some of the iPhone 3G S features in Apple’s new Guided Tour. Take his VoiceOver demo that starts around the last half of minute 5. At 6:07, Nelson asks the iPhone: “What song is this?” But he moves and smirks as if to say “BOOYA PRE, ANDROID, BLACKBERRY, AND SYMBIDORK! WHAT YOU BITCHES GOT NAO?!” True, that guy is pretty good. Do they really recruit these guys from Apple Stores? I find that hard to believe. What bugs me about the demo is the scenes where he’s “outside,” holding the phone perfectly still. The thing is obviously mounted somewhere, and the hand doesn’t move, either. The compass part is even worse than the video demo. It really freaks me out.

June 5th 2009

Apple’s ResEdit: Welcome to 1994

Looking for a way to make a DMG for my application that would show a license and then self-extract when downloaded with Safari, I came across this helpful Apple documentation page today. It describes how you can “Internet-enable” it and links to a tool for adding a license. The latter points to the somewhat cryptic “Software License Agreement for UDIFs software development kit” on Apple’s Development Tools page.

It turns out that that SDK is really just two files, and the download weighs in at 33kB. I may not be an experienced Apple developer, but the description is very cryptic; and no program on my machine can open the other included file.

It mentions the use of ResEdit, a program I have heard about but never actually seen. So I go hunting for it, and I find ResEdit 2.1.3. In an ancient .sea.bin file. After unpacking it, it turns out to be a “Classic” app, i.e., for Mac OS 9 or before. Further digging reveals that it was last updated in August 1994 - almost 15 years ago. And it’s an OS 8 program. Oh Es Eight.

Apple’s developer tools are generally pretty good, even though there are some exceptions (Jar Bundler, for example, is nothing to write home about). But finding documentation about a perfectly useful feature in 2009 that requires a tool that doesn’t even run on new hardware anymore (and only in the Classic sandbox on PowerPCs), is disappointing.

I eventually found DropDMG, which gets the job done for $20. It’s slightly odd in the way it works, but it works, and I don’t have to build a time machine to use it.

But this kind of basic tool should really be a part of Disk Utility or Xcode or something. Or Apple needs to just link to DropDMG, instead of sending people on a trip down memory lane to the mid-90s.

Posted at 9:41pm and tagged with: Apple, Programming,.

June 2nd 2009

Why iPhone OS 3.0 Won’t be Released Next Week

There has been a lot of noise lately about iPhone OS 3.0 being released to the public next week, when Phil Schiller gives the WWDC keynote talk on Monday. Fanning the flames has been the release of iTunes 8.2 yesterday, which is a prerequisite for installing the OS on an iPhone or iPod touch.

There are a number of reasons why Apple won’t release the OS next week, but the most obvious is this: WWDC (WorldWide Developer Conference) is Apple’s primary event for developers. Thousands of developers will be there, including lots of iPhone devs. They won’t be doing any programming there, but will spend lots of time with Apple employees learning about the new OS. So it would be a really nonsensical move (and basically spitting developers in the face) to release the OS to the public during that week.

But there is more. There have been rumors of new hardware functionality in the next iPhone, like an electronic compass, an auto-focus camera with higher resolution, video recording, etc. Developers have not had access to those, and they were not mentioned in the iPhone OS 3.0 presentation a few months ago (for obvious reasons). It is also likely that Apple has a few more pure software features up its sleeves that they haven’t talked about yet.

So even though Apple has been requiring programs submitted to the AppStore to run on 3.0 for a few weeks now, developers don’t really know the entire OS yet. Releasing the new OS on Monday will mean a lot of apps won’t be ready for it (it’s not like every app has been updated), and even those that supposedly were might not be. In any case, they won’t be able to use the new features that will only be introduced on Monday.

That also means that the new iPhones will not be available right away, but remember: this is a developer conference! The original iPhone and last year iPhone 3G were also only available at the end of June. It seems likely that they will stick to that schedule. It gives Apple the publicity, and developers some time to incorporate what they have learned into their programs.

Finally, that gives everybody plenty of time to update their iTunes. I doubt a lot of people update software every week, especially in this case where the bundled QuickTime update requires a restart. Having as many people as possible on iTunes 8.2 will make the transition to iPhone OS 3.0 much smoother and quicker, and that is clearly in Apple’s interest.

Posted at 7:25pm and tagged with: iPhone, Apple,.

May 31st 2009

Apple corporate song from 1983.

We are A-apple
Leeeeeaaaaaading the way!
We are A-apple
And we’re making a better today!
What a feeling!
And it’s only begun!

Posted at 3:06pm and tagged with: apple, video, song, commercial,.

April 11th 2009

Apple’s AppStore for iPhone and iPod touch is about to sell its billionth application. You can watch Apple’s pretty counter webpage, or you can see the downloads piling up and the rate of downloads visualized below. Unlike the billionth song download a few years ago, this is in (almost) real-time. The collected data and the Python script that generates the images using Google Charts is included.

Via EagerEyes (yes, that’s my own site; blatant self-promotion, etc.)

Posted at 1:42pm and tagged with: apple, iPhone, AppStore,.

Apple’s AppStore for iPhone and iPod touch is about to sell its billionth application. You can watch Apple’s pretty counter webpage, or you can see the downloads piling up and the rate of downloads visualized below. Unlike the billionth song download a few years ago, this is in (almost) real-time. The collected data and the Python script that generates the images using Google Charts is included. Via EagerEyes (yes, that’s my own site; blatant self-promotion, etc.)