There’s nothing like the WWDC keynote to make your less-than-a-year-old iPhone 3Gs look like an archaic piece of junk worthy of Zack Morris. Also, I have to say this keynote didn’t seem to have the same sense of anticipation. I blame the Gizmodo leak from a few months back.
So here’s what all the pundits have to say about the iPhone 4 and iOS4.
Have you grown tired of reading about how the 4.G iPhone was lost, what Nick Denton (he owns Gizmodo) thinks about it, and letters from Apple’s lawyers? (and really, how could you grow tired? It’s like the awesomest, nerdiest soap opera this month). But if you are tired of it and need to cleanse palate go read How to Raise a Nerd. It’s tender and sweet (though I warn you, you’ll have to ignore quite a few distracting typos). Plus, it’s pretty awesome to see others reveling in their nerdom.
“But why would I ever want to raise a nerd?
For me, I take nerd to mean someone who has in-depth knowledge on a topic. (I realize there are other connotations the word obviously has, but for me , this is my definition.) So there are video game nerds, sports nerds, anime nerds, history nerds and so on and so forth. What makes nerds so great is they are fountains of information, making some truly intriguing conversations possible — and better yet, some truly heated and even truly meaningless arguments.
But, in short, nerds care. They have fires in their bellies. They have passion.”
It’s a grey and dreary day in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area. The kind of day that sucks all the energy out of a room and all the thoughts out of your brain. If I had any thoughts left, they’d surely be regarding this post about the history of the photo that’s the default wall paper for iPhones, or about how Facebook was really founded (be careful if you have delicate sensibilities when it comes to the f-word, there’s some swearing), or maybe I could weigh in on this point/counterpoint between Marco Arment and Merlin Mann.
But I have no thoughts, instead I have a very cool video to share.
70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.
By now, you’ve read all about the Apple’s new tablet, the iPad. You’ve watched the videos. You’ve maybe giggled about the product name; let’s be honest though, the Nintendo Wii’s name hasn’t hurt its popularity. You’ve either dismissed it as a big iPod Touch that won’t go anywhere, or, you’ve already smashed your piggy bank and have money in hand. Regardless, Apple has a pretty good track record with their latest products (iPod, iTunes, iPhone) and we don’t want our ad and marketing agency partners to be the last ones to the party.
First, the iPad debut doesn’t mean that our agency partners should stop making iPhone applications. All iPhone applications will work on the iPad out of the box.
But how does the iPad affect our agency partners who have already created applications for iPhone and now also want to take advantage of the bigger screen of the iPad? Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as hitting an Easy button (trust me, I have one) and magically all your applications are reformatted for the iPad. The user interface will have to be redesigned to support multiple resolutions. It’s also not just relaying out the design for the larger screen; it’s also understanding what the iPad is, and designing an amazing user interface to take advantage of the new user interface features.
When looking at creating a new iPad application, our agency partners really have two options: target just the iPad or target the iPhone and the iPad. Targeting the only the iPad should have a similar development cycle and cost as developing an application just for the iPhone. If the choice is to target both devices, there will be some design layout changes, but the core of the application will stay the same. There will also be some additional time for our crack Quality Assurance team to make sure we release a great application.
If you don’t think the iPad is going anywhere, I present Steve Ballmer.
Then again, if you think Apple is infallible, I present the iPod Hi-Fi.
Either way, The Nerdery is ready to help you create great applications, no matter the platform.
Looking around but not finding a user group fit for developers and non-developers alike who are interested in mobile apps, Justin Grammens founded the Mobile Twin Cities user group in March. Programming experience is far from prerequisite for Mobil TC members and visitors – the door is open to anyone wanting to talk/learn about what’s possible on mobile platforms, including Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile.
“Being more on the technical side myself, I somewhat jokingly said, ‘I want to have people at these meetings that are NOT like me,’” said Grammens. “I decided that if I were to form a group, I wanted it not to segment anyone. I wanted presentations on both technical and non-technical subjects, by people who were interested in mobile technology and allow for networking, companies and new products to grow. I wanted it platform agnostic and skill level/knowledge/interest agnostic as well.”
Having outgrown its table at a coffee shop, Mobile TC makes its Nerdery debut tomorrow evening (Sept. 15, 7-9 p.m.).
On tap: Alex Brekken will demonstrate on a high level the Palm WebOS and the technologies involved on getting going with development on the platform. Justin Grammens and Sam Schroeder of Recursive Awesome will show some differences in a trivial iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palp Pre applications they wrote. And representing non-developers, self-proclaimed Nerdery senior account nerd Matt Albiniak will talk about how to make a paycheck as a mobile developer – come see if he also regurgitates some of what his ad agency contacts tell him about their ambitions for going mobile.
Want to make sure the Nerdery orders enough pizza for all? Then RSVP by replying to Justin here or by leaving us a comment. Same goes for those wanting to speak their mind – as mobile developers, users, interested parties, passersby – at an upcoming Mobile TC user group meeting.
With the release of the iPhone 3GS only two days away reviews of the new Apple device are cropping up everywhere. I need to figure out how to be one of these wizbang gadget reviewers because much like most all the other people in the land my very first iPhone is being held for future delivery (boo).
And for those of you iPhone owners who are probably in the process of downloading the update to iPhone OS 3.0 (or anxiously awaiting your chance to download) Mashable has a nice list of things you should know about the update.
