Four years ago today, the Apple App Store launched, changing the face of software distribution. Anyone from a curious 13-year old to a grizzled developer who lived through learning Pascal can release an app and hope to strike gold. Even Apple’s own operating systems are distributed with this model now. I distinctly remember my first thoughts on the matter. I was standing in line for the iPhone 3G, not for myself, but for a coworker who I had convinced to upgrade (so I could get his original iPhone). Imagine, the internet in my pocket, anywhere I went. The future had arrived for me. Four years later, this has become commonplace. But I do remember being asked on that line, “so what do you think about this app store?” by a curious line stander. I didn’t have much background actually developing software yet, so I heartily told him “Eh, you can already download apps from Installer, who cares where you get it from?” (Sidenote: Remember Installer?)

Well, as it turns out, it was kinda a big deal.  Continue Reading →

iOS 6 ends up bringing a lot of interesting new features to the regular user, and looking over the API differences, not a lot on the developer side of things. iOS 5 was a gigantic leap for developers, starting with ARC, Storyboards, and a bajillion¹ APIs opened up. I’m willing to bet that this is becoming Apple’s calling card. One on, one off, is now to be prevalent in designing both hardware and software.

A pattern is emerging that makes it seem pretty likely: Continue Reading →

• iPhone 3G, 3GS.
• iPhone 4, iPhone 4S.
• Leopard, Snow Leopard.
• Lion, Mountain Lion.
• iOS 5, iOS 6.

When I was a kid, I used to try and make words and phrases out of my phone number, because before the internet we had nothing better to do. These days, if you want a custom phone number, there is a way to do it for only $3. So, here’s a quick little life hack for you.

When you sign up for Google Voice, they offer you the ability to pick your own phone number, from the pool of numbers that they own. I used Google Voice for a couple of years, before ultimately deciding to port my number to my carrier. The process to port your number only costs $3, a phone call to your carrier, and a few hours of waiting for it to go through (in which you can continue to use your phone). Continue Reading →

I figure, might as well get these on the record, and afterwards we can all laugh at how wrong I am.

The Mac

It’s dead. Just kidding, it’s being revitalized. Continue Reading →

Below is a letter that I wrote.

L Continue Reading →

The idea of a continuous client is something that has sent nerds’ hearts a flutter for a long time. No matter what device you pick up, you’ll have an up to date conversation log.

Now that Apple has released a beta of their Messages (formerly iChat) app, iMessage is more accessible than ever. (iMessage is the protocol, Messages is the app.) I’m toying with the idea of dropping AIM for straight iMessage. If you get an iMessage on your phone, it comes to your Mac, and vice versa. You can now reply to your friends without picking up your phone and poking a 3.5" glass screen.

A new problem that arises when using iMessage.  Continue Reading →

Go to your Chase account and enter your password. Now log out, and enter your password with a different pattern of capitalization. So if your password was Password, now try pASSWORD. I bet you it worked and Chase still let you into your account.

I’ll preface the coming diatribe with a statement about my expertise. I am not a security researcher and would never call myself an expert in the field of cryptography. I’m just a software developer who likes to poke around in security matters in as amateur a way as possible. The material covered here is a basic explanation, and there are many more factors in play. Feel free to contact me if you have more that you’d like to discuss. Continue Reading →

Educators have a goal, to teach children. These days in America our goal seems to be concerned with how to trick, or worse, force a kid into learning. Instead what they really should be focusing on is how to relate the information to the child. That is how you get a child excited to learn. Continue Reading →

When you’re learning, it’s important to make mistakes, that’s how you learn. When you spend 10 hours looking for what is wrong, and it turns out you wrote if(x=1) when you meant if(x==1), I can guarantee you the next time you look for why a piece of code is magically broken, that will be the first thing you’ll check. If you do this enough times, you’ll find yourself fixing stupid mistakes before you even make them. That’s how you get good. Continue Reading →

As Merlin Mann would say: if you have 27 priorities because then you don't have any priorities. With schoolwork and work-work catching up to me I have very little time for my own coding. It's important for me to make sure I get done what I need to get done. Midterms, homework, deadlines and life have been making it difficult of late for me to sit down and churn out a bunch of code for myself, even though the things I want to do are quick and simple. When I do have some spare time it hurts to even think about coding. Continue Reading →