FLV metadata performance
One of worst-kept secrets of Wii Transfer is that the movie playback is not as good as what you might see on an Apple TV, Xbox 360, or PS3. I do my best to improve the quality with every release, but let's face it: while the Wii is perfectly capable of playing fullscreen video, it stumbles when put to that task inside the Opera web browser through Flash.
In the upcoming version 2.6, I've added the ability to skip directly to any part of a playing movie by clicking on the timeline with the Wii remote. It was frustrating not to be able to do that in previous versions and made it difficult to watch or fast-forward through long movies.
The way many Flash movie players handle skipping is by inserting metadata into the FLV file that contains a map between seconds in the timeline and file positions for the keyframes, and that's the way Wii Transfer works as well. Unfortunately this requires rewriting the entire FLV file when post-processing movies. (Ian Baird suggested a future optimization would be to store the metadata separately and redo the player to send seconds instead of file offsets to the server.) I was initially using the open source flvtool2.rb to achieve this, but it was extremely slow, so I rewrote it in Objective-C. (Not a port. The Objective-C version was written from scratch and is significantly shorter than the Ruby version in terms of lines of code. It does a little bit less, but it's optimized for exactly what Wii Transfer needs.)
This chart shows the performance improvements when processing a couple large movie files. Measured in seconds, so shorter bars are better.
The other good thing that came out of all this work is that I can now look at a FLV file in a hex editor and not be totally confused. Hex Fiend was one of the best ways to debug what my code was doing when it failed.
August 11, 2008 12:57 AM [link]I Am Rich
I wasn't going to give the silly $999 "I Am Rich" iPhone application any more attention after the initial laugh, but the more that everyone reacts to what went wrong the more clear it becomes that there is something to learn here. Kottke thinks Apple shouldn't restrict based on taste; Ryan Irelan points to no shopping cart as the problem; Dan Benjamin mostly agrees but with some more analysis; and John Gruber hits the same points and mentions (in passing) what I think is the real problem: refunds.
iPhone developers have wondered for months how refunds were going to be handled. Although demo and trial versions (if added) will be used by many more customers, refunds to unhappy customers represent an extremely important part of the relationship between developer and customer. I've written before about my philosophy with refunds and customer support, an opinion that is shared pretty universally in the Mac community. Just yesterday I gave a refund to a customer who purchased the software over a year ago, but apparently didn't get around to actually using it recently and found it did not meet his needs.
If there were a proper way for developers to send App Store refunds — because of unmet expectations (app crashes or doesn't work as advertised) or accidental purchases (my son bought this without asking me) — then this issue just goes away. It doesn't matter whether I Am Rich is worth $999 or whether the shopping cart should be an option in iTunes. The core issue is refunds because it fixes several problems at once, and removes Apple's personal judgement about what is good or bad for iPhone users.
August 8, 2008 01:20 PM [link]Core Intuition 6
I've really been neglecting this blog. I'm not sure what it is — I have plenty of posts in draft form and it's not particularly hard to hit the "Send to Weblog" button.
Speaking of people who wrote MarsEdit, our sixth episode of Core Intuition is out. Daniel and I spend a good chunk of the show on bug tracking, thoughts on running a software business while preparing for a new baby, staying inspired and getting distracted, and a bunch more. Plus we put out a call for good artists to contact us.
We had a lot of fun with the show and I hope you enjoy listening to it. If you have feedback, send an email or post a comment on Daniel's blog.
August 7, 2008 12:15 AM [link]WWDC 2008 wrap-up
Yes, this post is a month and a half late. I could probably just re-post what I wrote in 2007 and it would almost pass for this year's WWDC review. Just insert more iPhone and more beer.
Instead of a formal write-up, I wanted to piece together the week from Twitter posts, but that proved tedious enough that I had to write a little app to help me out. I started by adding my own relevant tweets for WWDC week, then threw in a dozen people I follow and selectively picked the tweets that were significant or about events for which I didn't directly post.
So here you go. How I remembered WWDC 2008, in 95 tweets.
manton: Totally forgot about partitioning my MacBook for potential 10.6, but (surprise!) it's still partitioned from last time. Now packing. Sat 06:14 PM
manton: Woke 20 minutes before my alarm. Making coffee for my taxi driver / wife. Sun 03:52 AM
manton: Migas in AUS while waiting for my plane to get here. As usual arrived way too early. Sun 06:26 AM
manton: I brought a Wiimote with me for testing and the lights are blinking. Suddenly paranoid about Bluetooth on planes, so taking batteries out. Sun 06:28 AM
manton: San Diego airport. Slightly delayed flight. Never been here but it looks like the worst place for a layover. Sun 10:15 AM
manton: Landed at SFO. Sun 01:08 PM
willie: bart Sun 01:25 PM
manton: Still surprised to run into other devs in person. Almost adjusted from online to real world. Sun 03:03 PM
duncan: Bumped into @willie @manton and @phi Sweet!!!!! Sun 03:39 PM
dmoren: en route to sfMacIndie via Moscone West... Sun 05:16 PM
brentsimmons: At Jillian's -- Tommy's next. Sun 07:45 PM
dmoren: chilling with @clint and @ejacqui. I do not know where in SF they have taken me. Hope I make it to the keynote tomorrow. Sun 08:38 PM
bmf: Tommy's'd! http://snipurl.com/2en8i Sun 10:47 PM
ccgus: chiefton! Sun 11:34 PM
gruber: Fucking-A, @nevenmrgan, @seoulbrother, @manton, not a bad scene at all. Mon 12:21 AM
danielpunkass: I'm so not going to Denny's. I am at home away from home in my sweet friends' guest room. Final tweets then good night. Mon 02:21 AM
rtmfd: Running on fumes, tequila fumes. Mon 06:35 AM
manton: Set my alarm for 9am. Woke at 7 with the sun streaming through the windows. Aeiii. Mon 07:34 AM
chockenberry: I will be happy to demo [REDACTED] apps during WWDC. You can touch it. Mon 08:07 AM
manton: And I'm in. Mon 09:53 AM
moonshark: in the WWDC keynote, good view considering the crowds Mon 09:56 AM
atomicbird: Al Gore is here Mon 10:02 AM
gruber: Holy shit $199 for 8GB Mon 11:48 AM
twelvelabs: Happy to finally get to see several months of my work shared with the rest of the world. Mon 12:07 PM
manton: Apple published a Snow Leopard press release before even showing developers? Not cool. Mon 01:28 PM
manton: Graphics and Media, don't let us down. I'm hovering dangerously between disappointed and satisfied from this morning and early afternoon. Mon 04:58 PM
brentsimmons: Heading for buzz's party. Mon 06:57 PM
manton: Dinner and good "best of the day" discussion with @willie, @moonshark, and work folks. Heading to Buzz party. Mon 08:31 PM
manton: Choosing sleep. Tue 12:24 AM
manton: Forget 3G, forget GPS. You know what I would pay $199 for? Flagging messages in MobileMail. Tue 12:35 AM
buzz: Well, I think we can call the party a success. Tue 12:45 AM
manton: Guessed i picked the wrong session. Mostly new people based on the show of hands. Tue 10:40 AM
manton: Session hopping is much better than seeing yet another intro to Xcode demo. Tue 11:07 AM
ashponders: @manton is not carrying anything today. I am jealous. Tue 11:24 AM
manton: iPhone view controllers. Nice thing about only playing with the SDK a little is that I'll learn more this week. Tue 01:43 PM
brentsimmons: CocoaHeads tonight. 7-9 Apple Store. Presentations + Q&A. Tue 01:59 PM
manton: Almost the end of day 2, and I'm not sick of the iPhone yet. Tue 04:46 PM
manton: W too busy. Grabbing quick noodles at Metreon before CocoaHeads. Tue 06:30 PM
louielouie: At CocoaHeads WWDC - getting to hear about Objective-J first-hand woohoo Tue 07:05 PM
ccgus: I just realized I didn't demo acorn in my pres Tue 07:45 PM
brentsimmons: Heading to Ars party. Tue 09:21 PM
manton: Good presentations at CocoaHeads. Outside full Ars party wondering what's next. Tue 09:43 PM
brentsimmons: Tempest. Yest. Tue 11:31 PM
macdevnet: Back from Cocoaheads and Ars Party, I think I'm getting to old for this. Great to spend some time getting to know @manton though Wed 12:10 AM
manton: Why can't I sleep in? This is annoying. It's as if my kids are here virtually, waking me up across time zones. Wed 07:14 AM
manton: Pixar session is always good, got in early. Wonder what @SenorDanimal is up to. Wed 12:06 PM
ccgus: I lost manton Wed 12:08 PM
manton: Push stuff is elegant, but the team doesn't seem to understand the scale of what they are building. Wed 03:04 PM
manton: Grand Central Dispatch. Cool stuff. Looking forward to randomly using blocks a lot before the fun wears off. Wed 04:06 PM
manton: Apple Design Awards. I didn't enter, so I'm almost relaxed. Good luck to all. Wed 07:33 PM
willie: At ADA. We didnt enter because our lack of superfluous shiny technologies Wed 07:37 PM
manton: Congrats to @nevenmrgan on the ADA win! Wed 08:09 PM
manton: Twitterific won! Congrats @chockenberry, well deserved. Wed 08:14 PM
atomicbird: Best iPhone productivity app: OmniFocus Wed 08:15 PM
manton: Going to stay for at least part of Stump to support @willie's addiction. Wed 08:50 PM
manton: I don't usually sit this close to the front. Scared. Wed 09:05 PM
willie: Involved in 2 stump points for the crowd this year. Rock. James Brown and the Quadra 840av. Wed 10:15 PM
manton: A surprising number of people I know are winning Stump t-shirts this year. Wed 10:28 PM
brentsimmons: At chieftain. 5th and Howard. Wed 10:47 PM
brentsimmons: Tempest now, folks. Thu 01:02 AM
manton: Using the iPod dock in the hotel room. Strange, but the first time I've actually ever used a radio dock. Sounds good! Thu 07:57 AM
manton: Wish there were Apple t-shirt sizes between kids 7 and adult small. Preferably in pink. Thu 09:48 AM
manton: Sitting in on Advanced Ajax for a change of pace. Thu 10:20 AM
manton: Typing lyrics into Google on iPhone to expand my WWDC music playlist. Thu 10:29 AM
manton: @atomicbird Tom Dowdy. It was a great tribute. Thu 10:36 AM
manton: Wasn't going to see Dinosaurs, but intrigued after hearing a better description. Thu 12:26 PM
manton: Just passed @schwa talking enthusiastically to a trash can. Then noticed the earbuds. Thu 03:34 PM
manton: Debugging with WebKit session. Inspector just keeps getting better. Still like CSSEdit, buy may use it less. Thu 04:01 PM
danmessing: Apple bash time. Thu 06:48 PM
gruber: Thirsty Bear with Buzz Andersen and other malfeasants. Thu 09:05 PM
buzz: Drinking a Golden Vanilla beer with assorted Mac noteables at the Thirsty Bear. Thu 09:16 PM
willie: Barenaked Ladies - http://snaptweet.com/20fd8 Thu 10:09 PM
moonshark: Bare Naked Ladies - Apple WWDC Bash - http://snaptweet.com/3d7d5 Thu 10:11 PM
dmoren: totally just film-geeked out with @nevenmrgan. Hitchcock, bitches. Thu 11:23 PM
brentsimmons: Heading to Tempest. Thu 11:56 PM
danielpunkass: Tempest tonight was perfect crowd. Could have used several more hours of that scenario. 'Tis a shame. Fri 02:27 AM
bmf: Dan M. wrote the "e" and ate the shit out of some toast. Fri 03:01 AM
danielpunkass: I got my ride home thanks to @manton's cab allowance. Thanks! Fri 03:06 AM
manton: Last WWDC session. It's been a great week but can't wait to be home. Fri 01:58 PM
manton: Dropped my badge at the hotel and going to wonder around. To everyone I missed saying goodbye to: safe travels and seeya next time! Fri 03:17 PM
manton: @brentsimmons @rtmfd I'm going to take a raincheck on last drinks until the next conference, need to go shopping. Was good to hang out. Fri 03:30 PM
manton: The Ms Pac-man in the W lobby doesn't need quarters. Fun. Fri 03:43 PM
manton: Visiting the Cartoon Art Museum. Fri 04:04 PM
manton: Walking to Chinatown in search of gifts. Fri 05:24 PM
manton: Walking back to the hotel using the longest possible route. Feel very relaxed. Fri 06:08 PM
duncan: Taking @willie @manton @phi Daniel and crew to Luce. Oh yeah. Celebration of a long week. Fri 07:01 PM
willie: dining with @pinar @duncan @moonshark @manton & others. Good times. Fri 07:23 PM
willie: Pantade - http://snaptweet.com/dc8bd Fri 07:41 PM
willie: Bisque - http://snaptweet.com/d901c Fri 07:41 PM
ccgus: A great WWDC photo set: http://tinyurl.com/5rtwpu Fri 08:33 PM
willie: Study of Chocolate - http://snaptweet.com/04f07 Fri 08:41 PM
danielpunkass: I'm committing to never beat myself up again for missing lots of sessions at WWDC. The social contacts are priceless and inspirational. Fri 09:45 PM
manton: Great dinner with the work folks + @duncan, @pinarozger, and Daniel Steinberg (no twit?). @willie has the food photos. Fri 10:08 PM
manton: And that's it. Catching a taxi to SFO. WWDC review: worst keynote, best conference week. Sat 06:27 AM
manton: Landed in Austin. Pretty funny flight crew made the trip back easier. Sat 01:31 PM
August 2, 2008 10:03 AM [link]Second episode
Daniel Jalkut and I just posted the 2nd episode of Core Intuition. I'm not sure which is a bigger milestone: starting the podcast to begin with or sticking with it for at least two shows. I think the podcast is coming together well and the feedback we've received so far backs that up.
This episode feels a bit more content heavy than the previous one. We talked about what it's like to work while traveling, tech books and some thoughts on the 3rd edition of Cocoa Programming by Aaron Hillegass, and then dedicated most of the last half to distributed version control systems such as Git. Even though it is just days before WWDC, we only touched on WWDC indirectly. I expect there will be enough to talk about after next week to fill more than a few shows.
Editing the show continues to be a challenge but it's so rewarding, just being able to slowly craft the episode from the recordings. You tell a little lie every time you tweak the original source audio, but hopefully the end product feels more authentic or at least fresh. It makes me appreciate even more the work Ryan does on The Talk Show. Our goal is to improve the quality each episode until we reach a point we are happy with, so if you have any feedback I'd love to hear it. After WWDC I'm going to invest in some real headphones. I was shocked how different the show sounds between my speakers, cheap headphones, and iPhone.
If you haven't subscribed yet, you can now find the listing on iTunes and get it synced to your iPod or iPhone in just a few clicks. Enjoy!
June 5, 2008 10:10 PM [link]Core Intuition
Like many new tech endeavors for 2008, it was announced first on Twitter. Core Intuition is a new podcast from Daniel Jalkut and me, with a focus on the daily life of a Mac developer and whatever related subjects are going through our heads. There was so little time between the "let's do it" idea to recording and edit and web site and Twitter account that I might not have believed it actually happened if I had blinked, but here it is. Expect the traditional iTunes page, blog, and other formalities to follow soon.
Daniel's blog post has more on the announcement. He also has comments enabled, so feel free to jump over there and post feedback, unless it's the angry, negative kind of feedback in which case please send a private email to feedback@coreint.org. :-)
Thanks for listening. We'll be doing these regularly so please subscribe in iTunes if you want to catch the next episodes.
May 30, 2008 04:04 PM [link]Wii friend codes from Twitter
As most Nintendo Wii owners know by now, Mario Kart for Wii shipped last week. I put together yet another friend code database to track and share codes, but this one is unique because it builds on Twitter. Just follow @wii and send your friend code in a reply. No registration, no data entry. All your friends on Twitter who also use the system will automatically be linked, so you can quickly get a view of which friend codes to add. It's also a great way to discover new Twitter users.
I'm pretty happy with how the implementation has worked out. It's build on essentially three background scripts:
- Parsing replies every minute looking for the friend code pattern (1234-1234-1234 for game codes, with dashes or spaces).
- Taking queued users and pulling everyone they are following into the database.
- Generating and caching the RSS feed for recently tweeted friend codes.
The system currently only pulls the first 300 followers, but it's running smoothly enough that I will bump that up to 500 this week. Over 150 people are currently using it, and the database has about 10,000 records to keep track of friends. I feel like it's architected well enough to grow significantly from here, so I may do some casual promotion of the service this week.
If you own a Wii and use Twitter, give it a try. If you have any questions or feature requests, please send me an email or reply on Twitter. Enjoy!
May 4, 2008 10:32 PM [link]Flip Ultra
I first heard of the Flip a few months ago, but it wasn't until this 37signals post that I started paying attention. I was attracted to the simplicity of the video camera: few buttons, decent quality, and kid-proof design. Here is my mini-review.
Speed. This is where the Flip shines. It is compact enough to take anywhere, and simple enough that you can take it out of your pocket and start shooting video in seconds. I've already shot way more video than I would with my traditional DV camcorder.
Battery. It runs on two AA batteries. I was able to record a ton of video before replacing them, accumulating 3 GB of files over several weeks. This is unheard of compared to any other still camera or video camera I've owned.
Transfer. The Flip saves as the Xvid flavor of MPEG-4, which is not supported natively by QuickTime. Luckily a quick Perian install later and you can view and edit them in QuickTime Player or any app that supports QuickTime. Just mount the camera and copy them over, or convert to H.264 with something like VisualHub. The Wii Transfer 2.6 beta also supports Xvid to convert and share to your Wii.
Quality. I wanted to do a side-by-side comparison with Motion JPEG used on most digital still cameras, but this isn't a video hardware review site so an in-depth analysis is beyond the scope of what I need or have expertise in. To my eyes it looks pretty good though. Make sure to get the Ultra, not the regular Flip Video which has a lower bitrate.
Complaints. You need to give the power slider and record buttons some real pressure, and on a few occasions I've clicked record only to realize 1 minute later that it didn't start. I understand that the designers didn't want us turning it on or recording unintentionally, but this negates some of the speed advantage mentioned above.
In a nutshell: The Flip isn't for everyone, but at just $140 it's hard to argue with its strengths. I take it everywhere now. One pocket for iPhone, one pocket for Flip.
April 24, 2008 08:07 AM [link]Wii Transfer serial numbers
The search phrase "wii transfer serial numbers" (or "wii transfer serials") is consistently one of the top referrers from Google to this blog, usually pointing to my post about the first 75 days. I figure I get enough traffic that I should dedicate a page to this. (I'm the developer, by the way.)
Here are the best ways to get Wii Transfer:
- Buy a copy! Just $19. Simple checkout with PayPal and you'll get an automatic email within minutes.
- Write a review for a blog or magazine. Email me first and I'll give you a full license, even if it's just your personal blog.
- Become a beta tester. From time to time, I need people to test the latest in-progress features. Free copy if you send any useful feedback on a beta.
Thanks for your support! I hope one of these options appeals to you.
April 23, 2008 08:57 AM [link]Unite the Party
After Hillary won Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island last month, I decided it was time to think less about actively supporting my own candidate, who clearly wasn't going away, and more about the future of the Democratic Party and what it would take to come together when a nominee is chosen. I had been quick to defend Hillary on Twitter and in blog comments, but the more I considered the close race and the long month until the next primary in Pennsylvania, now finally here, the more convinced I became that a joint ticket is the answer to a unified party.
Rather than bicker with my friends who support Obama, I changed my tone to emphasize our shared values and launched a new site: unitetheparty.com. I've been posting there regularly since March, and hope to build a group of like-minded Democrats to write on this topic, as well as a list of supporters who want to see a joint ticket happen.
Thinking about the endgame of the race in this context provides an excellent backdrop for discussing the real issues important to voters. There's still an opportunity to use these campaigns for good: setting the right tone against McCain and bringing awareness of the Democratic agenda to everyone.
April 21, 2008 11:06 PM [link]Ollie Johnston
Last week Traci asked me if I had heard about the animator who had died. Now of the 220 feeds I subscribe to in NetNewsWire, a full 60 of those are in a group called "Animation and Comics", so I should have heard about any news from a variety of artist blogs or industry sources. But I've had my head down working on a number of programming projects -- both Rails and Cocoa and just keeping up with the never-ending flood of email and Basecamp messages -- so that NetNewsWire group was closed, and I was sadly ignorant.
My first question to her: "Was it Ollie?"
And of course it was. Ollie Johnston passed away at the age of 95, the last of Disney's "Nine Old Men". See the epic Cartoon Brew post for more. I had blogged about the death of his friend Frank Thomas in 2004, and also of colleague Ward Kimball in 2002.
For those who don't know me very well, and even many who do, I'll let you in on a little secret. One day my boss is going to wonder why I don't answer his emails, and it will be because I've thrown the computer in the trash, set my USB devices on fire, and returned to the first passion of my life.
Sure, I have an old-school animation desk (old office 2005 and new office this year, next to computer stuff) and a bunch of paper and sharpened pencils to play with. Sure, I'll still always love building software, designing user interfaces, and am grateful for the friends I have at work and in the Mac development community. Sure, I can't support a family and giant mortgage doing silly portraits on the street corner.
But damn it. Ollie Johnston died.
April 21, 2008 08:59 AM [link]MacLife write-up and Wii Transfer beta
Wii Transfer has a full-page mini-tutorial in the May edition of MacLife magazine, as part of a section on connecting your Mac to video game consoles. I finally picked up a copy last night. It was certainly a nice surprise and seems to have brought a small increase in sales.
I've also been wrapping up the next version of Wii Transfer, which hopefully smoothes over most of the rough spots in the current release. After sending beta copies to a few customers, I'm opening up a new forums section as an experiment in getting early builds out without a more formal public beta. (It's not linked from the main site yet, but will be soon.) Every developer handles betas in a different way, but I like the balance Jesse at Hog Bay Software has achieved between his released software page and the early builds and developer notes in the forums section, for those customers willing to dig a little bit below the surface.
April 20, 2008 12:29 AM [link]Fancy-pants productivity
There are a few things in this post by Ryan Norbauer (via 37signals) that bother me. One is this idea that "code is meant to be read by humans first and computers only secondarily". I understand what he is getting at, but even though I respect new advances in productivity, we have to be very careful to keep our core priorities. There's a word for when the balance shifts away from the user and more to us as programmers: selfishness.
Imagine two programs: one is ugly and hard to read, but it compiles and is bug-free; the other is beautiful and readable, and it also compiles and is bug-free. To the user they are identical. They both succeed.
Now take those two and give them both identical beauty and readability, but accidentally break one so that it either does not compile or runs so horribly buggy and slow that it is useless to everyone. Writing code for other programmers to read isn't enough. You have to start with code that works before you get all fancy-pants.
This growing trend to raise beautiful code and programmer productivity above the performance or functionality of the final product is dangerous. The final product is what counts. Not how you build it, but what you've built: how it scales, how it performs, how it solves a particular problem.
And sure, there are many times when I write slow, lazy code that doesn't work well. But that's a compromise you make when you have to meet a deadline, or because you aren't sure how to optimize yet, not because you start out by deprecating user experience. If you believe Ryan, it sounds like there is a whole "movement" of programmers who toss any potential performance achievements out the window before they even get started.
You can say that great products are complex, and so you need to focus attention on how the software is built and maintained. That is true. When I ported a large application from Carbon to Cocoa a few years ago I made the decision to do so because of future productivity.
You can say that happy programmers create high-quality products. That is also true. When I am feeling most productive I am usually enjoying myself because the work environment I'm in is encouraging.
But don't put the practice of software development above the actual result, because to do so means you care more about writing code than solving problems.
March 14, 2008 12:38 PM [link]iPhone SDK and NDAs
Craig Hockenberry half-joked on Twitter about the iPhone SDK non-disclosure agreement and it reminded me of one of my personal annoyances in the development community: we tend to take NDAs very seriously. I've always been impressed by how Scott Stevenson in particular can write thoughtful articles about Mac software development that go out of their way to tiptoe around unannounced APIs. In his latest excellent introduction to the iPhone SDK, there are no less than 3 mentions of the NDA in the original post and comments:
"Until that time, the SDK is under NDA and the apps cannot be distributed to the general public." (Scott Stevenson)
"The iPhone SDK is very well done (can't say more because of the NDA)" (Florent Pillet)
"To answer without getting into NDA stuff, let's talk about Mac OS X in general." (Scott Stevenson)
I've also been hit by this community-killer. At WWDC last year I posted to Twitter about new .Mac features and it remains the only tweet I have ever deleted. I had this sudden paranoia that conference staff would kick me out of Moscone and revoke my ADC account. Silly.
But let's look at reality. Over 100,000 people have downloaded the SDK. This couldn't be more different than WWDC, which effectively encourages discussion only while in San Francisco by requiring an investment of at minimum $2-3k between conference, hotels, food, and travel. The SDK by comparison is totally free to download.
Put simply, how can Apple expect us to take an NDA seriously while at the same time they spread the applications and documentation covered under this NDA to every corner of the Mac universe?
I'm not a lawyer, but this one seems legally ridiculous. There are a few issues handled by the license:
- Don't distribute apps created with the beta SDK. That's fine, because there's no good way to do that anyway and giving everyone a level "June launch" playing field makes sense for both Apple and developers.
- Don't rip-off Apple's ideas and use them in your own phone before the SDK ships. That's also fine, because I don't care about other phones and generally think Apple already has a insurmountable development platform advantage.
- Don't talk about confidential capabilities of the SDK. This is the one I have problems with, because I question if something can be considered confidential if it is shared with 100,000 people.
For years Mac developers have asked Apple for an official, closed mailing list to discuss APIs still under NDA. Maybe things would be different now if Apple hadn't refused that request, but with a release as mainstream as the iPhone SDK it's too late to try to control the conversation. I expect a healthy discussion of APIs and business practices to happen on blogs and Twitter and IRC and email, and that's how it should be.
March 13, 2008 12:21 AM [link]STAPLE! in Austin today (year 4)
Like independent comics and art? STAPLE! is in Austin today at the Monarch Event Center, off I-35 and 2222. I've been on the STAPLE! planning committee for four years now and have enjoyed watching our little show grow from its humble beginnings, but it's still a completely non-profit, volunteer-led endeavor and we need your support to make it a success. Come join us anytime between 11am and 7pm (or check the schedule for our featured session times), and then come back downtown later tonight for the after-party and live-art show at Red's Scoot Inn (flyer).
March 1, 2008 09:30 AM [link]
