The Android Opportunity

John Gruber writes in his Daring Fireball blog:

They [disgruntled iPhone owners] don’t want to downgrade from the iPhone. They want to upgrade from the iPhone.

Read more about The Android Opportunity and Android Opportunity Addenda

original link

Invaluable iPhone debugging help in the Xcode Organizer

Debugging is never much fun. Fortunately, most of the time you can run your program when it's attached to the debugger and get a detailed view into what's going on. Even when the debugger isn't able to give you a good window into the problem, the iPhone SDK provides the uber-handy NSLog() function to do good old fashioned printf()-style debugging.

Sometimes you need to test your code on a real device that's detached from your development system because you're testing out in the field or you're working with the External Accessory Framework and you need use the 30 pin connector to talk to the accessory. Fortunately the Xcode Organizer provides you with some help here.

You've no doubt used the Summary tab to set up your development devices. There's a few more goodies here you might not have noticed (I hadn't until recently). The Crash Logs tab, while not as informative as the debugger, can at least show you the call stack at the time your app crashes, along with method names, file names and line numbers.

The crash log information can be a bit overwhelming if you're not used to it, but it's worth spending a few minutes looking closely at it if you're trying to diagnose a crash.

The Console tab can be just as confusing at first, but shows you not only the NSLog() output from your app but handy system messages as well.

The Console seems to only store a couple of hundred log messages, so don't go crazy with NSLog(), but it can be incredibly handy in narrowing down or confirming the cause of a crash when your device is not connected to Xcode.

Announcing Hi Ka Flash - Japanese Kana Flashcards

Now available in the App Store, Hi Ka Flash is designed to accelerate your learning of the basic Japanese kana (hiragana and Katakana) using flashcards, quizzes and audio recordings.

Unlike other applications that have you work with either hiragana or katakana, Hi Ka Flash helps you to learn both kana and their romaji at the same time. Using this process you'll find you can distinguish the different characters with greater ease and efficiency.

Hi Ka Flash incorporates both male and female native Japanese speakers pronouncing each of the kana for you. Reading, listening and repeating each kana help reinforce memorizing the characters.

Great for kids, students or anyone learning Japanese. Drop us a line and let us know your experiences and thought on Hi Ka Flash - we look forward to hearing from you!

Click here to see our complete list of apps.

iPhone Friday - August 14, 2009

Happy Friday!  Today's iPhone and iPod touch wallpapers are by request and the first of a collection featuring popular english names.  Cheers

iPhone Friday - August 7, 2009

Hello and happy Friday!  Today's wallpapers is from a study in vector blends.  The monochromatic pallet is a nice and calming blue color with pops of cyan for energy. Enjoy.

Click on the image for the full-size image.  (Touch and hold on the image to save it - iPhone/iPod touch.)

The Definitive Guide to iPhone App Market Sizing

Jonathan Wegener sizing up the iPhone application market in his recent blog post, subtitled "So You Think You’ve Got a Million Dollar App Idea". Some interesting numbers from his post:

• Only 75% of users actually download apps [Pinch Media]
  
  • The most frequently downloaded free apps reach approximately 30% of devices [comScore]
  • The most frequently downloaded paid apps reach approximately 3% of devices [My calculations - explained later]

original link

Announcing Fridgemags

Don and I are happy to say that Fridgemags is now available for sale in the iTunes App Store.

Fridgemags is a refrigerator in your pocket complete with magnets. Starting with the ABC's and a few extra vowels and consonants you can spell messages and save them to your photo's to email to friends.

With Fridgemags young children can interact with their ABC's and are instantly engaged with and audible, visual and tactile experience. 

We hope you have as much fun playing with Fridgemags as Don and I had making it!  And we'd be happy to hear from you - just drop us a line or send us a picture.  Cheers!

Click here to see our complete list of apps.

original link