sudo life

I’m an Apple fanboy.  I own a Macbook Pro, an iPod, an iPhone, and I’ve spent countless dollars in the iTunes store.  Sure there are a few things I really can’t stand, like the lack of control over my iPhone, but it’s manageable.  Overall, I’m pleased.  There is a distinct improvement in the quality of software when moving from a PC to a Mac, and that has been the biggest thing driving my praise.

However, I’ve been noticing a trend from Apple.  They treat their independent developers worse than microsoft does.  There is a very low barrier of entry into writing software for microsoft.  There are countless articles, podcasts, and videos available to help someone get started, but also help all levels of developer.  With Apple, it’s extremely difficult.  I’ve been on the lookout for even a book that helps someone get started in development on Leopard.  There are reference books available, and books that are targeted at earlier versions of OS X, but nothing recent.

But what brought on this most specific rant?  This posting from macworld, announcing that the videos from WWDC (the apple developers conference) had been made available on iTunes U.  That sounds awesome, and I headed over to check it out immediately.  Unfortunately, these videos are free, but only to those developers that have paid $3500+ to become an apple “premier” developer.  Compare this to say the availablility of all the Lang.NET 2008 conference videos for free. You don’t have to sign up for anything.  The videos are listed in a clean interface and you can just scroll and download.  Things can’t get much better than that when it comes to developer videos.

Come on, Apple!  Get with it!

Programming .NET, apple, Programming, technology, videos

I’ve spent the morning getting familiar with the new iPhone software.  There is some good stuff here, some mediocre stuff, and some crappy stuff.

First, the crap.

1)  Weatherbug – You can only keep track of three cities.  It advertises that you can get radar images, but it gives you ‘the whole world’ and you have to zoom in on what you want.  Plus, the information isn’t even accurately represented.  This one is already uninstalled from my phone.

I recommend the ‘AccuWeather’ web program instead.  That’s what I’m sticking with for now, coupled with the built in weather app.

2)  Remote -  Is a cool concept but gives you absolutely no information about how to set it up.

3)  Movies.app – wouldn’t let me get out of the zip code box.  The interface here sucks terribly.  I highly recommend Box Office instead.

Mediocre:

1)  AIM – This is not ready for primetime yet, probably due to the fact that Apple’s push notification service isn’t going to be launched until a few months from now.  It keeps you signed in once you exit (which is good), but has no way to notify you when you get messages.  They show up in a bunch whenever you open the program.  To add insult to injury, they messages are blank.  Finally, there is no way to sign out, so I signed in somewhere else.  I expect this program will be improved quickly, though.

2)  Facebook – This is a nice improvment, except you can’t access people’s walls.  Other than that, it’s pretty cool.  I will be sticking with the web interface, however, until this gets updated.

Great:

1)  MLB At Bat – This works well.  The videos are clear, and it integrates with their web interface so you can get game summaries, box scores, etc.  I just wish there was a way to filter out the teams you don’t really care about.

2) Band – This app rocks.  The blues instrument has been providing me a lot of entertainment already.  Definitely worth the money.

3) MPG – Simple app for keeping track of your car.  Can’t get much better for a buck.

4) Twitterific – I had some trouble with this at first, but it seems to have gotten itself together.

5) Box Office – The interface is perfect.  Exactly what I needed.  I only wish I could set my ‘favorite’ theaters, and filter out the rest.

All in all, it’s a mixed bag.  The apps you pay for have a noticeably higher quality to them than the free apps for the most part.  There are a few exceptions, obviously.

What cool apps have you found?

Life Hacks apple, applications, iphone, reviews