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| 04-29-08 / 11:32 PM : MacPro for audio : cheaper than Rain (cjed) |
| Rain Recording provides PCs targeted for audio : metal case and silent, many hard drives, many USB and Firewire ports, many PCI Express slots (16x and 1x) and also standard PCI slots. So they look like the MacPro. However at 2750$ the quad core Penryn 2,66GHz with 4Gb ram and 2X 500Gb hard drives, the Rain Quad Core Digital Audio Workstation aren't interesting compared with the MacPro : 2550$ for a quad core MacPro (faster, 2,8Ghz, and more powerful thanks to its Xeon processors) fitted with two 500Gb hard disks (and Radeon HD2600XT, Radeon HD3650 on the Rain). |
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| 04-29-08 / 11:00 PM : RIM is developing for iPhone (cjed) |
| RIM, the maker of BlackBerry, would have hired an Objective-C/Cocoa developers team, probably to develop a client application for iPhone that connects to their push-mail service. |
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| 04-28-08 / 11:15 PM : New imacs/GeForce 8800M GS option (cjed) |
| Apple presented revisions of the imacs : the processors range from 2,4 to 3,06 Ghz (1066 Mhz bus), and prices from 1199 to 2199$. On the 24' model at 2,8Ghz (2Gb ram, 320Gb disk, 1799$), the Radeon HD 2600 PRO (256Mb) can be replaced by a GeForce 8800M GS (512 Mb of GDDR3) for 150$ (this card upgrade isn't available for lower models at 2,4 or 2,66Ghz, but it is default on the higher end 3,06Ghz model). Despite being a mobility card, the 8800M GS is said to be two times faster than the Radeon HD 2600 PRO. At 1950$, there is still to compare it with refurb Mac Pro (that provides 4 processors), notably if we still owns a display (the imac display is big however, 24'). |
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| 04-27-08 / 06:47 PM : Another Pangea like ballad (cjed) |
 This ballad uses the usual piano (custom patch SuperbGrandJ4 with 3 velocity layers, derived from the Complete Piano's SuperbGrand patch), Artist Grooves for the drums (loops here, in order to remind the previous songs PangeA/B/C) and SO Gold : SPBallad |
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| 04-27-08 / 01:27 AM : iPhone b4 SDK : inactive applications (cjed) |
| The beta 4 of iPhone SDK is said to bring officially support for inactives applications, but it isn't really background apps contrary to those demonstrated previously with a trick : only the app delegate would be added, but as stated previously, to make a true backgorund app the application objet also had to be modified. |
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| 04-26-08 / 04:47 PM : RoundCube Mail /unusable javascript apps (cjed) |
| The javascript (Ajax) webmail application RoundCube is a good demonstration of why solution like GWT won't be suitable : approximative multitasking with Ajax calls (not robust and not intended to be used for that), no threads management, no access to core system features. So these applications will always be buggy. Why not go back to eighties classic mac programming with the toolbox (not reentrant APIs). Then what about having spent so much time creating robust OS with semaphores, if it is to end up with javascript... Another example is the news uncollapse/collapse (+/-) on the site, that sometimes doesn't work (hopefully not often), requiring to load again the page. The calls are Ajax with asynchronous mode. |
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| 04-26-08 / 04:32 PM : Objective-C 2 is cool / Java isn't (cjed) |
| At Cocoacoder blog, the author explains why he finds Objective-C 2 so useful (compared with OC1) : Properties, Garbage Collection, Fast Enumeration. He gives code examples that shows the gain (in terms of time and code length) allowed by OC2. He also points out an interesting article, When did Java lose its cool ? : deceiving JavaFX, etc. |
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| 04-26-08 / 04:03 PM : iPhone SDK tutorial / background App (cjed) |
 The site IhateTheiPhoneSDK (not serious ?) provides a tutorial that gives tricks to manage some of Interface Builder bugs discovered in the first betas of iPhone SDK. These are principally not working methods or incorrect documentation (not updated). We see the new look of IB, that is really nice (floating toolbars like those in most of Leopard applications : DVD Player, QuickTime Player, Preview, etc.).In a second article we learn how to create a backgournd application. To conclude, the documentation on Cocoa is huge : numerous books since 2000 (without counting previous books on NextStep), sites and blogs (CocoaDevCentral, etc.), online documentation (ADC), specific articles by Apple (I remember the one about CoreAudio after OSX shipped, and the recent article about OpenGL), documentation installed by the SDK (1,3Gb for the archive !). We benefit from the experience of more than 15 years users, nothing to compare with the Google Phone SDK, too young and untested. |
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| 04-25-08 / 12:24 AM : iPhone SDK beta 4 (cjed) |
| Apple now provides at download the beta 4 version of the iPhone SDK. Among other new features it brings OpenGL ES support in the iPhone emulator. |
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| 04-23-08 / 11:14 PM : Record apple results (cjed) |
| Apple just published its financial results for the second quarter (fiscal) 2008, it is the best (second quarter) ever in its history : 7,5 billions $ sales (and 770 millions net profit !), 50% growth of macs sales in a year (2,3 millions units this quarter), 10,7 millions ipods sold and 1,7 millions iPhone. |
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| 04-23-08 / 10:20 PM : Apple buys PA Semi : new PPC (cjed) |
| Apple buyed PA Semi, designer and maker of power efficient processors (used for onboard and signal processing chips - mainly military purpose). These processors are in fact derived from the POWER architecture, and a 64 bits dual core chip at 2Ghz only requires 5 to 13 W ! The company founder was the lead designer for Alpha and StrongARM processors. The price (278 millions $, that is a half the price Apple paid to get NeXT in 96) shows the implications : we could se soon these processors in ultra portable macs (MacBook Air), derived chips in iPhone, and some coprocessing chips in macs. The skills of PA Semi could allow Apple to put pressure on Intel, and monitor their work on the ATOM architecture, for what they don't benefit from a long experience, contrary to Motorola (Freescale) or PA Semi. |
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| 04-21-08 / 10:53 PM : ATI HD4800 (cjed) |
| ATI announces its new graphic cards generation, the HD4800 (4850 and 4870, with GDDR5) : GPU starting at 800Mhz up to more than 1 Ghz, 1,8 to 2,2Ghz memory (512Mb), 256 bits, 32 textures management units, and an expected price ranging from 179 to 219$. |
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| 04-19-08 / 06:53 PM : Ethnic mix & DFH (cjed) |
| Here is a variation from a theme made using Bagpipes and Cora (the ethnic instruments and bass are from Colossus, and drums are from EZ Drummer DFH) : DFHA |
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| 04-17-08 / 10:40 PM : Apple : stereoscopic head display (cjed) |
| Apple a filled a patent about a head stereoscopic display (with laser imaging) that allows peripheral view. |
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| 04-16-08 / 10:27 PM : Google Earth 4.3b (cjed) |
| Google presented Google Earth 4.3b, that brings new features (some still available through its web site) : display of some towns in 3D (modeled), time management, navigation through streets. We hope this time they will follow Apple Guidelines, as their previous Google Earth porting was not great... close to an Eclipse port quality... But finally they can't be strong at developing javascript and at the same time be strong at developing in Objective-C ! |
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| 04-15-08 / 11:16 PM : GeForce 8800 GT option for old MacPro (cjed) |
| The GeForce 8800 GT option for old MacPro is finally available, and it is only priced 280$. A Radeon HD 2600 XT option is also listed, at only a half the price of an old Radeon 9600 Pro for G4.... that was out 5 years ago ! |
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| 04-13-08 / 09:23 PM : Round Cycle : rock piano intro (cjed) |
| This song is based on a piano theme (Complete Piano), an ImpOSCar pad, two drums parts played using ArtistDrums (and merged), guitars (Colossus and K2), and SO (strings) and SC : RndCycle |
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| 04-12-08 / 08:04 PM : Cocoa tutorials and books (cjed) |
 In 2005 we could read a stunning tutorial about CoreData (with a great layout), on the site Cocoa Dev Central, written by Scott Stevenson. Since, two new tutorials from the same author (more simple but as nice) have been added, and updated to Leopard :Learn Cocoa and Learn Cocoa II. On its very friendly blog, the author provides a Core Animation tutorial (and derived versions as screensaver). We also find a link to a beta version of an upcoming book about Core Animation, Core Animation for OS X : Creating Dynamic Compelling User Interfaces. The downloadable version (PDF) is available for 22$ (220 pages, the printed version is priced 44$ and expected this June, 2008), and code of the included examples are provided for free. Finally the third edition of Aaron Hillegass's Cocoa Programming is coming. It will deal with the following themes of Tiger and Leopard (the second edition from 2004 only covered MacOSX 10.3) : Garbage Collection (Objective-C 2, Leopard), Core Animation (Leopard), Window and View Controllers, and two chapters on Core Data (appeared in Tiger). It is also expected in June 2008 (WWDC). Meanwhile we can download the solutions of the second edition's examples here. As a starting point, there is also the great Cocoa Programming from Scott Anguish, Erik Buck and Donald Yacktman, that was out in september, 2002 (and covered then up to MacOSX 10.1) and is the most exhaustive (1272 pages). It is the book I buyed in 2003 at Eyrolles (US import, 68 euros), and that I recently started again reading (9 first chapters for now - that is 280 pages -, that confirm that Java, even after having evolved these last 10 years, is still far behind Objective-C/Cocoa, and is only intended to create a giant market, buzz and unnecessary needs, encouraged by many companies and consortiums, that wouldn't like to see a proprietary technology spreading). We can look at a recent tutorial about Cocoa threads (NSOperation and NSOperationQueue) on the great site Cocoa is my girlfriend. An older site, Cocoa 3D, provided in 2003 a framework that wrapped Cocoa OpenGL APIs, that are lower level than NeXTstep's 3DKit. In fact we can download on the ADC a great PDF, OpenGL Programming Guide for Mac OS X (166 pages, revised late 2007) that presents the 3 OpenGL programming levels on MacOSX : CoreOpenGLAPI (CGL), that are procedural OpenGL Core APIs, NSOpenGL classes based on these procedural APIs, and AppleGraphicsLibrary(AGL) that are Carbon APIs (also based on CoreOpenGLAPI). That is the usual scheme : CoreFoundation procedural APIs serve as a basis for objects frameworks like FoundationKit and AppKit. An example of screensaver using OpenGL is available at Cocoa Dev Central. Youtube demos : Xcode 3 Beep Tutorial Simple Objective-C/Cocoa Xcode Tutorial Xcode 3 and Cocoa programming tutorial |
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| 04-12-08 / 04:19 PM : Internet content filtering not feasible (cjed) |
| As the internet content filtering project faces strong legal problems (principle rejected by the european Parliament, without mentionning a legal authorization limitation) it appears that it couldn't be feasible technically due to new providers's non centralized networks and data volumes. Besides legal problems, filtering would cost more than piracy (for content editors, and also for internet providers). Moreover the free downloading leads to stronger buy as confirmed by a Pcinpact article. There is also encrypted P2P solutions, or non tracable networks. Then the law project is only here to produce a fear effect (and hope so, as it has worked for some years), but real actions are not due soon. |
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| 04-10-08 / 10:57 PM : New FreeBox (cjed) |
| Free a announced a revision of the FreeBox v5. It removes the unaesthetic antennas (are now inside) and enhances the Wifi speed by up to 5 times (now uses the 802.11g instead of 802.11n). The link with the multimedia module is made through CPL. This new FreeBox is currently only available to new customers. |
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| 04-10-08 / 10:44 PM : YellowBox 2 / Apple RCP ? (cjed) |
| The Yellow Box 2 might be unveiled during the WWDC2008. It would be the perfect rich client solution for the future of WebObjects, as it would bring an Apple made RCP for Windows and Mac. There was the great tool nib4j produced Swing applications from Interface Builder nib archives, but the project site is down (or the developer has been hired by Apple...) Then no need anymore to recreate a responder chain in Java for client side. The procedural part of the Yellow Box (that is CoreFoundation APIs) is still being used to develop the Windows version of Safari. |
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| 04-10-08 / 12:02 AM : Radeon HD3870 for MacPro ? (cjed) |
| Apple might have added today as built to order option for MacPro a Radeon HD3870 (512Mb of GDDR4) . This card was out mid November, 2007, and is 10 to 20% slower in some games than the GeForce 8800 GT (not so much differences at highest resolutions with FSA on), as reported by clubic and bit-tech.net. It isn't listed anymore on the AppleStore. |
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| 04-08-08 / 12:08 AM : Objective-C / Java / Groovy (cjed) |
| Here a some major advantages of Objective-C (language used to build Cocoa and WebObjects) over Java : Java does not comply with the message concept, as it directly binds the message concept to a method call on an object (that must be known). However the message (command) should be dissociated with the method call (result of the command sent). The Objective-C runtime natively includes a messaging/delegation system (Responder Chain, delegates objects chain), and the target of a message (that can respond to it) isn't known (and hasn't to be) by advance. Cocoa frameworks (AppKit, etc.) use delegate objects definition (bind through InterfaceBuilder for example) in order to redefine/extend objects behaviours without the need to subclassing. With Java nothing has been planned to deal with that. The target object must be known (or at least its interface, even with reflection APIs, except when the class name is specified in a configuration file and in the client code - as with the O/R mapping layers) by advance. Set up a messaging bus (as the Responder Chain) would lead to a less than elegant syntax. The Objective-C selector feature is more elegant than Java reflection APIs, and we can instantely (and easily) check if an object can respond to a message (without having to know its type). Classes also can be extended at runtime (or be swapped/replaced), and a native proxy aspect is present. br> And what about Groovy : it brings nothing new compared with Objective-C, and despite its compatibility with Java JVMs, it requires an aditionnal compilation step (that hits the programming flow). |
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| 04-07-08 / 11:38 PM : WebObjects : 12 years old, the future (cjed) |
 WebObjects is 12 years old. The first version of the Next Web solution shipped in march, 2006, just before Apple buyed the company (end of 1996). In a message from August, 2006, Apple announced the deprecation of its famous tools (EOModeler, EOModeler Plugin for XCode, WebObjects Builder, WebServices Assistant, RuleEditor, WOALauncher), and so pushed developers to switch to Eclipse+WOLips plugin. The message ended in a positive manner, stating that the WO was bright, and that the staff would be reallocated to prepare the future of WebObjects.For some no tool can actually offer the same productivity as WOBuilder, and the Eclipse WOLips plugin doesn't provide WYSIWYG yet. However it could bring that major feature later and still includes exclusive functionnalities (wod binding validation, auto-completion and templated suggestions, tracking of bugs at compile time and not only at runtime). Hopefully a WO conference is planned in June, 2008, just some days before Apple's WWDC2008. The main following themes will be dealed : Non-HTML apps and WebObjects (talk to Cocoa by JSON-RPC, and use Adobe Flex), Ajax, JavaClient and JBND (learn how to use JBND to bind your Java Swing app with WebObjects and client-side EOF). We expect Apple's answer about its Web solution orientations, as its staff is now only comprised of 4 engineers. Perhaps a consortium aimed at promoting and modernising WO would be great ? |
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| 04-06-08 / 08:29 PM : Pangea Programming Guide for OSX free (cjed) |
 Pangea Software now provides for free at download their MacOSX games programming book, Pangea Software's Ultimate Game Programming Guide for Mac OS X (2004). Through its 280 pages it covers all important themes : tools, video modes, CoreGraphics, OpenGL and optimizations, calculations and optimizations on PowerPC, vertex, frame rate calculation, gamma, carbon events, audio (OpenAL), QuickTime, inputs/HID, Maya models, threads management, networking, copy-protection, and even stereoscopic view (used in some of Pangea games) !The book examples use XCode and Carbon (not Cocoa, but what is useful is the game programming principles and APIs, some of those can be mapped later to corresponding Cocoa objects), and the projects files are bundled in the download archive (40 Mb) ! |
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| 04-05-08 / 12:01 AM : Safari on iPhone faster since v2.0 (cjed) |
| The iPhone OS 2.0 and new Mobile Safari version bring 35% performance boost in the browser performance (however still 20 times slower than Safari on a MacBook Pro in complex javascript tests). |
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| 04-04-08 / 11:55 PM : Cult of iPod & mac free in pdf (cjed) |
| The books Cult of iPod and Cult of Mac, listed on Amazon, are now officially available for free (in pdf, through torrent, here and there). |
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| 04-04-08 / 11:46 PM : TimeMachine backup excluded files (cjed) |
| Macosxhints unveils a command that allows to know files excluded from Time Machine indexation (other than exclusions setted in the preferences pane) : opened files, caches, specific files defined by each application (for example virtual machines files of VMWare). |
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| 04-03-08 / 11:30 PM : Adobe, 64 bits and CS4 : rewrite in Cocoa (cjed) |
| Adobe announced that the 64 bits version of CS4 for mac (being developed) will ship after the Windows version, due to Apple abandon of Carbon 64 bits support in XCode. Then the software will have to be rewritten fully, in Cocoa (only framework to support 64 bits now). Developers initially refused to do so when the Yellow Box of Rhapsody was presented in 1996 (NextStep APIs for MacOSX Server and Windows, renamed later as Cocoa and enhanced at the MacOSX 10.0 client release early 2001), what leads to MacOSX client and Carbon framework (corresponds to updated MacOS9 APIs - some ToolBox instructions deprecated, and others modified to be reentrant). However Adobe had ten years to prepare its software base code for migration, and Apple clearly stated more than three years ago that Cocoa programming was the future for MacOSX applications. Moreover, Adobe Lightrooom (beta 2 actually) is written in Cocoa... and then still supports 64 bits (it is a new application however). There is also to consider that updating CS3 to support (deprecated) Carbon 64 bits would have still required a lot of rewritting. Globally editors of multi-platform apps rarely embrace specific technology of target systems, and prefer to use abstraction layers that map to procedural APIs of each OS. This isn't possible with a fully object oriented framework like Cocoa (uses a true object messaging system - ResponderChain). On another hand, frameworks like Windows MFC (lags way behind Cocoa/Next in terms of architecture and concepts (MFC is finally procedural APIs, far from really object oriented) slows the progress of modern mac applications (in fact at start - early 90s - Photoshop and Illustrator were mac only... at that time it was System 7 procedural APIs). An alternate solution (except for user interface management, that has to be done through Cocoa Interface Builder and responder chain, that is the AppKit framework objects) would be to use Cocoa CoreFoundation APIs (procedural versions of instructions of Cocoa FoundationKit objects). That is probably what Adobe plans to do, as a full rewritting using all Cocoa object paradigms will require years (even considering Cocoa development is way faster than procedural development like Carbon). This has to be balanced with the fact that an image editing software like Photoshop uses - except for the UI - a lot of functions (filters, etc.) that are typically C code, and that won't be ported (can be called from Objective-C objects, as well as C++ code). However if Adobe decides to replace these libraries with recent Cocoa frameworks APIs (ImageKit, etc.), the rewritting will be more important (but they probably won't do that, because code base synchronisation with Windows version would then be even more painfull). Some interesting links (some provided infos may not be valid as for now) : Discussion about Apple's Carbon White Paper (announced in 1998 orientations for Carbon/MacOSX : deprecated Toolbox instructions, etc.) Cocoa or Carbon ? (may,2000, just before the MacOSX Public Beta) Carbon vs Cocoa (AppleInsider forum, 2002) it is possible for a Carbon app to be better threaded than a Cocoa app. Much of Cocoa's AppKit is not reentrant (meaning that it's not safe to make calls to the same method within multiple threads at once), and as a result there is an awkward arrangement built into the application frameworks where only one thread draws into the view (the window, essentially), and this thread also contains the main event loop. This is why Cocoa windows stop rendering when you hold the mouse down on the scrollbar thumb (but only that window stops updating, not the whole app or the whole system). It's quite possible to make a Carbon app that doesn't exhibit that behavior.) Cocoa vs Carbon (2002) Short Carbon history (from 2000). Facts are not that simple : for the MacOSX release (and for some years later), as stated, Apple had to put its efforts on Carbon, and even some new MacOSX APIs were only accessible from Carbon applications (these APIs were later progressively wrapped by Cocoa objects - thanks to the ability of Objective-C to call C and C++ -, that is non-native Cocoa - ie not CoreFoundation procedural APIs). The MacOSX Finder was first developed using parts of System 8/9 Finder (when the APIs used were provided by Carbon), in fact the base code used intially the PowerPlant framework from Metrowerks, another set of APIs to consider (migrate and validate to Carbon). Since some years the Finder is being rewritten progressively in Cocoa, notably in Leopard (new Finder). Newly introduced APIs are mainly Cocoa, and Carbon doesn't evolve so much. Finally Apple seems to have found a mean to promote Cocoa, as Safari and iTunes for Windows (and probably upcoming Apple applications) still use CoreFoundation procedural APIs, ported to Windows (come from the YellowBox). And hopefully, thanks to Google (GWT), will we soon only see superb applications using a great object and reentrant language, javascript !!!! :):):) Although the programming is done using java in GWT, the javascript generation engine is proprietary (owned by Google and not open), the generated javascript is limited in functionnalities and will always be slower than native compiled language (as javascript has to be interpreted by the browser). The new disk access features (Gears) added to Google Docs also brings security concerns (see also this site about Google) |
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| 04-02-08 / 11:13 PM : MacBook Pro penryn and games (cjed) |
| Bare Feats provides benchs showing that new MacBook Pro Penryn aren't faster than old ones in games. |
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| 04-01-08 / 11:47 PM : Apple : 21% consumer marketshare in US (cjed) |
| Worldwide mac marketshare is only 3% (but 0,5 point higher in 2006 from 2007), but if we consider the consumer market only, it is up to 10%, and even 21% in US. The iPhone took 10% marketshare in 6 months (16% for Palm, falling, and 40% for RIM, that was until now alone on the high segment). |
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