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| 11-22-08 / 06:31 PM : My experience with Google Adsense ads (cjed) |
| As pricing of iPhone games is very attractive (only 79 cents for some great games), incoming gains from Google Adsense ads on the site (33$ since March 2006, for 2600 news and 80 free songs since January, 2005, and 5000 visits / 50 000 hits per month) allow at best to get one game a month (the monthly gains are 80 cents on average) :-) Hopefully this isn't the purpose of the site (was initially intended to be a comprehensive news database, with indexation and advanced search, better than bookmarks). Is that Google bots fault, that only indexes the site once per ten days, while news written on the new Wordpress cjedaudio site are indexed in just about 3 hours (and considering the older main site uses a sitemap and indexing settings setted to More often) ? Some think that problem is common for most of the site hosted on a Free.fr domain. In comparison, the cjedaudio.wordpress.com blog, despite providing less content, succeeded reaching 4000 visits/months in just a two months and a half timeframe. However this new blog pagerank is logically lower (1/10 against 3/10 for the main original site, that in fact reached a 4/10 peak about two years ago). |
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| 11-22-08 / 05:52 PM : New books : Exploring the iPhone SDK... (cjed) |
 Two new books about programming for iPhone are available : Beginning iPhone Development: Exploring the iPhone SDK (536 pages, 32 euros) and Beginning iPhone 2 Application Development: From Novice to Professional (350 pages).We can also find Core Animation for Mac OS X and the iPhone: Creating Compelling Dynamic User Interfaces (35$ or 22$ for PDF version). We can download source ode of the examples and access to a corresponding support forum. |
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| 11-22-08 / 05:02 PM : Core Animation culling problems / 3D layers (cjed) |
| On the Parmanoir blog (creator of JSCocoa), we can find a rework of the Core Animation NanoLife example originally developed by Theocacao's Scott Stevenson (particles dispatched on animated layers, 80 total), as with goal to describe these particles in 3D. The encountered problem (layers ordering with the new z dimension, that is ignored by Core Animation) seems to have been resolved by Scott Stevenson (provided the fix), and Core Animation behaviour finally seems right. The orginal article provides interesting informations on these subjects : Core Animation and Core Image filters, conversion between NSImage, CIImage, and CGImageRef, full screen mode for NSView. |
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| 11-21-08 / 11:51 PM : iPhone 2.2 OS and SDK updates (cjed) |
| A 2.2 update to iPhone OS is available. Among new features we note Google Street View, display of walking directions, share of location by email, access to podcast, a new search interface for Safari (as well as better performance and stability). Apple also provides a new (2.2) corresponding iPhone SDK version (whose size - a bit more than 1,5 Gb - is larger than the previous). |
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| 11-19-08 / 11:19 PM : Snow Leopard earlier / desktop quad core imacs (cjed) |
| Apple announced that Snow Leopard will finally ship earlier, in the first quarter of 2009 (was expected not sooner than the second half of 2009). Then this Intel optimized OS (and that uses OpenCL and GrandCentral) should be more efficient than Windows, for at least one year. Meanwhile new imacs fitted with quad core Nehalem (Corei7) processors are expected for the January MacWorld. For the first time they will use desktop processors - in fact special low-power versions -, instead of mobile architecture. Then we shouldn't expect new mid desktop models using the MacPro enclosure (these will keep the Xeon processors, and then remain expensive). |
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| 11-19-08 / 12:09 AM : Core Animation : custom properties and beyond (cjed) |
| At The Omni Group blog we can find an interesting article that provides an approach for adding custom properties to Core Animation (that is properties whose changes trigger the animation - ie intermediate images calculation). The goal here is to consider changes in the layer content, what isn't possible with the provided CA properties (are closely tied with OpenGL operations) : either the content changes aren't notified, or the animation calculation will be triggered too often (unnecessarily, because forced), leading to poor performance. A link to the source code is provided. We could also find at Theocacao an article that explains why Core Animation principle (implicit programming using KVO) isn't restricted to animating. That is exactly what I thought two years ago, and I've planned since that time to use this approach in web frameworks. |
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| 11-17-08 / 11:50 PM : iPhone Discover/DiskAid/Briefcase : share&view (cjed) |
 A new utility for iPhone, Discover, is available for free at the AppStore. It allows to exchange (through Wifi) files between an iPhone and a mac (or PC), or between two iPhones. It uses the WebDAV protocole (based on HTTP). Once the application (WebDAV server) is installed and started on the iPhone (and connected to a Wifi network), some of the iPhone files directories can be accessed from a client (mac, PC, or another iPhone) : Public, Private, Photos folders (the iPhone server application allows to create new folders). Connecting from a mac is easy, by just launching Safari and clicking on the Bonjour discovering link in the bookmarks (so no IP to provide- the same for discovering from another iPhone using Discover). From a PC we have to download a specific application, as Windows doesn't manage natively the Bonjour discovering system.Moreover the iPhone Discover application allows opening of the browsed files. It manages many formats (problems are reported with very large PDF files) : PDF, HTML/WebArchives, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, text files, video and audio files managed by QuickTime. We can finally set a login and password to protect the published directories. We can also find DiskAid, a free application that has to be installed on the client side only (mac or PC). It is a files browser that allows to transfer files from/to an iPhone using USB connection. However it doesn't allow then to browse and open files on the iPhone side, and is intended for files carrying only. When lacking Wifi connection at home, it should be possible to combine the two softwares : transfer the files from the computer to the iPhone through USB using DiskAid, and then use Discover on the iPhone to browse and open files. UPDATE : Briefcase Lite by Hey Mac Software (free - 4,99$ for the full version) provides the same features as with Discover (files transfer through wifi, display), but with a more polished and powerful interface (that includes downloads and uploads management, with resume option), and brings a new optimized reader : full screen view, quick navigating in PDF documents files as with Preview (scrollbar, scroll and zoom using touch). The connection uses SSH and devices discovering (iPhones, macs) is also based on Bonjour. Briefcase Lite allows connection between an iPhone and a mac (browsing of the mac filesystem, and then Download or Upload), but it doesn't manage connection with a PC (a partial support is provided in the full version of Briefcase, however as it doesn't include a Windows client application for the Bonjour discovering system - contrary to Discover -, the SSH connection has to be setted manually). Between two iPhones the Lite version only allows Download (no Upload), so actions triggering can't take place (only available with upload, that is to a mac with the Lite version and/or to another iPhone with the full version), like disk image mounting or installer package launch after files have been copied/transfered. By default the access point on the remote mac filesystem is at the user home directory (the same user as the one specified for the connection), but we can go up to the root /Volumes directory if needed. Once a computer has been bookmarked in the remote devices list (initial Bonjour discovering through wifi) on the iPhone side, it can be accessed through 3G network if wifi isn't longer available. We can see a demonstration video here. |
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| 11-17-08 / 10:44 PM : Accelerated Flash 10 and AIR for iPhone ? (cjed) |
| Adobe is preparing for the second half of 2009 optimized versions of Flash 10 and AIR for mobile phones using ARM11 (and Cortex) families processors and OpenGL ES 2.0 (in the context of the Open Screen Project). As the iPhone still uses an ARM chip and manages OpenGL ES 2.0, a full (and accelerated) version of Flash could be presented soon for iPhone (Apple initially rejected Flash Lite for iPhone, stating it isn't satisfying features and performances wise). Then Adobe won't be able to justify the performance gap between desktop MacOSX and Windows Flash versions. We can however expect Apple to slow the deployment of AIR for iPhone, as this technology competes with Apple's own RDA (QuickTimeX/WebKit/HTML5). |
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| 11-14-08 / 11:51 PM : MacPro : delayed to early 2009 (cjed) |
| Intel is expected to launch new Xeon (Nehalem architecture based) during the first quarter of 2009. That is the new MacPro won't be unveiled before the January Macworld at best. |
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| 11-13-08 / 11:51 PM : Apple / Google : end of relationship (cjed) |
| Apple may be willing to develop/enhance search web engines, at least results presentation (alla Time Machine). Now the iPhone includes requested Google applications (Google Maps, Google Earth) and Google enters the competition with Android after having probably got some support or information from Apple in return, it seems time for the two companies to stop their relationship, and Google's CEO is said to be leaving Apple's directors board. |
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| 11-10-08 / 12:25 AM : Who doesn't care about music ? (cjed) |
| Through a volontary alarming (and wrong) title, Piratage - Apple se fout de la musique, TF1/LCI deals in fact with many subject, by interviewing the president of french SACEM : new anti-pirating law, interoperability and DRMs, iTunes Music Store, use of music by phone carriers and internet providers as an appealing product, and finally Deezer. The SACEM admitted some facts : the ITMS is the only music vendor site that works and generates money back to companies and artists, whereas Deezer provides thousands of time less incomes than classical radios, and tends to lower the value of music and artistic work (there is however to note that in the meantime the SACEM made agreements with Deezer). [iTunes], c'est le seul support qui fonctionne, qui rapporte un peu d'argent. Avec Deezer, on est à sept millièmes d'euros au titre écouté par un internaute. Il faudrait donc qu'un titre ait été écouté des dizaines de milliers de fois pour rapporter quelques euros qui se partagent entre l'éditeur, les compositeurs et les auteurs. A force de vouloir concurrencer la gratuité, le piratage, on arrive à une dévalorisation de la musique. And what about the radio economic model used by Deezer : La comparaison avec la radio est limitée. Pour gagner avec Deezer l'équivalent sur de ce que rapporte un passage sur RTL, il faudrait q'une chanson soit écoutée des centaines de milliers de fois... |
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| 11-08-08 / 02:28 PM : Apple / iPhone : Mobile Gaming Force (cjed) |
| An article from BusinessWeek demonstrates again Apple's influence on videogames market with the iPhone, reflected by the AppStore strong success. |
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| 11-06-08 / 11:14 PM : Intel Core i7 prices (cjed) |
| Intel a presented prices of the new Core i7 (Nehalem). The first model (quad 2,66 Ghz) at 284$ seems the most interesting (the cores frequency isn't a limitation here as the added hyperthreading to the 4 cores allows 8 threads), the quad 2,94Ghz is two times more expensive (for a not so high frequency and same QuickPath bus speed). Moreover the power consumption of the first model is still 130W. |
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| 11-03-08 / 11:18 PM : Fastest laptop for games ? (cjed) |
| Alienware presents the M17, the fastest laptop PC (Quad Core, two ATI Radeon Mobility HD3870 graphic cards connected through ATI CrossFireX, HD 17' display), but also the thickest (probably three times the thickness of a MacBook Pro) and the most expensive : 3500$ for a quad core with the twin video cards, 4Gb of ram and 500Gb hard drive. The entry model at 1400$ (dual core at 2,26 Ghz only, a single video card, 2Gb of ram and only 160 Gb of hard disk) is probably just slightly faster than the new MacBook at 1200 euros, and should be noticeably slower than the MacBook Pro with GeForce 9600M at 1800 euros. |
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| 11-02-08 / 11:59 PM : Vaux-le-Vicomte photos (cjed) |
| A selection of photos taken at Chateau de Vaux-le-Vicomte is available in the Gallery2 section. |
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