Death Knell for PowerPC

As all the news sites are reporting, Sony is about to release an update to the PlayStation 3 that disables the ability to install or run Linux on the PS3 (one of the original features touted at launch). This update is mandatory if you want to continue using the online/multiplayer features of the PS3/

Unsurprisingly there is outrage in the community.

Miguel de Icaza, the man behind Mono and Gnome, states the "JIT compiler for SPUs wouldnt exist without Linux/PS3" and he believes Sony is "putting a bullet [in] PPC innovation/work, one of the few affordable systems for development".

The maintainer of the SPU GCC back end, Andrew Thomas Pinksi, is livid:

"…more than that, the spu gcc backend is no longer going to be maintained by me."

What that means to you non techie folks is that the standard compiler used by all Linux distributions to create software (and Unix and Mac OS X) will no longer fully support the Cell processor, the last remaining credible desktop PowerPC platform. This will kill all interest in using the Cell in any Linux-based PowerPC workstations and seriously makes things look dire for the future of PowerPC.

Already, two major Linux distributions have announced that they're dropping PowerPC support (Fedora and OpenSUSE).

I think this is a travesty and Sony are making a huge mistake here, and it's very sad to see PowerPC having such a public execution. More than this, I'm furious that come April 1st I will have to choose between updating my PS3 so I can play games on it and losing my Linux partition forever, or keeping my Linux partition (in which I've invested quite a lot of effort) at the expense of not being able to play or update games.

State of the iPad

iPad launches in the US next Saturday, and all the iPhone developers out there have by now submitted their applications to be considered for the App Store on launch day. I, like Marco Arment, don't believe I will be running any iPhone apps as-is on iPad, and ergo don't believe you should have to either¹:

"But then I saw the pixel-doubled version of my app in the simulator. It sucked, and it was completely unusable by my standards. I don’t think I’ll want to run any pixel-doubled apps on my iPad in practice."

With that in mind, I have submitted Universal updates for Grace, Speed and SameGame which will hopefully be live on launch day so that you have a fully iPad-compatible version at no extra charge when you get your iPad. As-is, they all have pretty much 1:1 feature parity with the iPhone versions. I'm working on some very cool updates to make use of iPad-specific features and UI, but they'll be gestating a little while longer.

The great thing about iPad's increase in screen size is that you can design brand new experiences into your apps that were never feasible before, for example two-player on-device multiplayer, and proper car dashboard replacements, etc. I'm really excited about what I'll be able to produce in the coming months.

---

1. One app you'll notice missing from my initial lineup is Lights Off. To be honest, I'm still figuring out how I can bring Lights Off to the big screen without it sucking, but I'll make sure to keep you up to date. It's something I want to bring to iPad fairly quickly. Also at this time I have no plans to bring Nuker to iPad; it's a more widgety type application and I don't think it would bring anything to the table on iPad.

Grace - Picture Exchange for Non-Verbal People

Grace, our application for communication with non-verbal children is now available on the App Store for iPhone and iPod touch, and hopefully will be available Day 1 on the iPad App Store (the application has been submitted to Apple for approval).

Lisa and I have put a lot of effort into Grace to make it a simple yet powerful tool for children in need of a voice, and we have much more planned! For now, Ciara O'Brien has the full story over at The Irish Times: 'Using a Phone Voice'

The Grace website is up at http://www.steventroughtonsmith.com/grace

Apple's iBooks Dynamic Page Curl

A week ago at NSConference I decided to try and figure out how Apple performed the page curl animation shown in the iPad announcement keynote.

It ended up being pretty easy to implement, and the page curl code has been in the OS since the beginning (although it's currently a private class - I've filed a radar asking to open the API that you can dupe if you'd like. rdar://problem/7616859). Basically you have to add in the finger angle tracking code and figure out the basic physics to make it believable. My code is pretty rough but it gives you a basic idea of how to get this working.

Here's hoping it's opened up because if it's not, then the iBooks app (distributed through the App Store) will be provably using private APIs which doesn't help anyone.

Here's a sample project that you should be able to build and run which shows the effect in action; the samplecode currently works for iPhone 3.0 and above.

Download Sample Code

Creating an iPad Application

One of the great things about the iPhone is how limited it is; to design an application for it, you just need to take one very simple idea and implement it really nicely. With the iPad, it won't be as simple; you have a lot more screen real-estate and the interaction model with the device is totally different. Can you imagine a fart app selling on this device? I certainly can't.

Instead of scaling up iPhone applications for the iPad, it's going to be more that we'll have to scale down desktop applications. There's an instant disadvantage to any developer who hasn't got established desktop software in their repertoire. Most of our iPhone apps simply will not work on the iPad because the apps' concepts do not fit this new platform. Noel of SnappyTouch has already 'announced' that he will not be porting his existing iPhone app to iPad, and I think that will ring true with many other developers.

The sky is the limit with the iPad platform, and there are some exciting times ahead. As mentioned in the keynote, this will be a whole new gold rush for developers.

"Magic"

And guys, they have a point. This thing could save the publishing industry and the newspaper/magazine industry. It could revolutionize the digital fine arts. It does essentially everything that can possibly fit on a screen that size, almost unconsciously. It is so magic that it does things you’d never imagine wanting something to do.

• Original post

That Changes Everything

Some people are claiming the iPad is a large iPod Touch, but I think that nothing could be further from the truth. Precisely because the iPad is larger, it’s not a device you’re going to carry in your pocket. It’s something that’s going to be laying on your desk, or piled on top of a few books on the coffee table. And that changes everything.

Noel Llopis muses as to where the iPad really fits in the market. I agree with pretty much everything except for the demographics; I think the iPad could also be a major influence on college/university students (and hey, I'm one of them).

A Mere Pop-Up Window

Yes, it’s closed–and developers still need to get Apple’s blessing before iPad users can install their wares. But, in fact, that’s really a feature–not a detraction. If we seriously want computing appliances to fade into the background and put the focus on what they can do for their users, such safeguards and gating are necessary today.

Bill Heyman in his post "The iPad Surfaces!". You know, on a related note, one of the amazing things about the iPad is that an entire iPhone-app's worth of complexity and power can be implemented as a mere pop-up window in a real iPad application. This thing blows the doors off mobile computing.

"…nothing will be quite the same again"

You may or may not be in the queue for an iPad in March, April, May or June. Or you may decide to stay your hand for version 2.0 or 3.0. But believe me the iPad is here to stay and nothing will be quite the same again.

Stephen Fry on Apple's new iPad.

'Apple's Tablet Obsession Reaches a Fevered Pitch'

Whatever Apple does announce, you can be sure that the result will be another lemming trail leading up to the local Apple Store. Until Steve Jobs steps down, that's going to be the result of virtually everything the man announces. I'd never bet against him.

Paul Thurrott over at his SuperSite for Windows.

Apple Planning Own Search Engine?

There's a lot of talk now about Apple thinking of replacing Google as the default search engine on iPhone, however the most interesting quote is from BusinessWeek suggesting Apple is working on their own search engine:

Even if it’s consummated, an Apple-Bing deal may prove short-lived. The person familiar with Apple’s thinking says Apple has a “skunk works” looking at a search offering of its own, and believes that “if Apple does do a search deal with Microsoft, it’s about buying itself time.” Given the importance of search and its tie to mobile advertising — and the iPhone maker’s desire to slow Google — “Apple isn’t going to outsource the future.”

It reminds me of Steve Ballmer's telling quote from the second Engadget Show in late 2009:

It doesn't feel very optional to be a significant player in the computer business in 2009 and not be trying on Search.

We're possibly about to see Google forcefully uprooted from iPhone OS 4.0, with Apple now owning their own mapping company, advertising company, and now in talks to bring Bing in as the default search engine. Let's hope the YouTube app doesn't get pulled, a lot of people use it regularly. Perhaps it will be moved to a download on the App Store? I guess Apple needs something to do with their new $1bn server farm. :-)

The Apple Licensing Myth

Legends die hard. In the pre-Web days, they got printed and reprinted, told and retold and so became official, like spinach being good for you because it held the iron your red cells needed. After decades of the disgusting veggie inflicted upon young kids - I remember, a scientist went back to the bench and found out there was no digestible iron whatsoever in spinach. You don’t get calcium by ingesting chalk, you need a calcium compound that’ll get through the sophisticated filters in the digestive system. Eating spinach gives you as much digestible iron as sucking nails.

Once top Apple exec, and founder of Be, Inc., debunks the theory that Apple must license the iPhone OS.

Nook v1.0 on Android Emulator

I decided to check out the Nook earlier today; naturally it's not available in Ireland so I downloaded the firmware update from Barnes and Noble and set to work on getting it to run on something.

I didn't expect to get very far, but after a little hacking it was actually working.

To get it to run I had to:

• grab the firmware update using the tools at http://code.nookdevs.com/

• unpack the system folder out of the firmware update using said tools and gunzip

• replace lib/libaudioflinger.so with that from a clean Cupcake build of Android (took it from the emulator)

• disassemble the classes.dex file inside framework/services.jar using baksmali

• modify 'ServerThread.smali' to remove the line " if-lt v0, v1, :cond_483 " (it looped on waiting for eInk display)

• recompile the dex file using smali and re-insert it into the jar

• create a system.img from the system folder using mkyaffs2image

• replace the system.img of my Cupcake emulator build with the Nook one just created

• boot the emulator with a resolution of 480x944 (the highest I could get it; it's about 120px too thin for the eInk display)

This is by no means a guide, but it should hopefully point more capable Android hackers in the right direction if they want to get this booting. I'm pretty sure that's all that was required.

Networking is working fine; and the arrow keys on the keyboard control the page turning

Here are some screenshots!

UPDATE:

A video for you non-believers ;-)

Nook on Android Emulator from Steven Troughton-Smith on Vimeo.

Grace - Picture Exchange For Autistic Children

First look at Grace, our picture exchange communication application for individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

THE IPHONE is set to become a communication tool for children with autism, with the testing of a new application for the device.

The application is designed to be used in a similar way to the Picture Exchange Communication System (Pecs), which allows children to build sentences using a book of laminated pictures attached to a board by Velcro.

The application, which is being developed under the working title Grace, is the brainchild of Lisa Domican, a parent of two children with autism. She was inspired by O2’s marketing campaign for the iPhone. Before the launch of the device in 2008, the mobile operator ran advertisements on buses in Dublin. Ms Domican noticed the advertisements and realised the phone’s potential as an alternative to the Pecs books used by her 10-year-old daughter, Grace.

“You are constantly having to replace loose cards and make new ones,” said Ms Domican. “With the iPhone, the screen looks like a Pecs book. It’s ok to have a four-year-old walking around with a Pecs book; it’s not ok for a 10 or 12-year-old. They’re very personal to the kids; it’s their voice. The [Pecs books] really stand out, whereas the iPhone is discreet and always there.”

The idea is backed by O2 Ireland, which supplied the devices for the development and testing of the application. The mobile network is already involved with Irish Autism Action and it was through this link that Ms Domican got backing from O2.

Ms Domican linked up with Steven Troughton-Smith, a software developer for the iPhone who has created a number of bestselling applications.

Mr Troughton-Smith, a student at Dublin City University, took the description of what Ms Domican wanted and turned it into a working version of Grace.

He developed the application to look exactly like a Pecs book. So instead of carrying around a Pecs book, older children can use the iPhone to choose from a range of pictures and place them on a virtual strip of Velcro.

Ms Domican’s daughter Grace has become so comfortable with the technology that she adds her own photos to the application’s library using the iPhone’s camera.

The application is undergoing trials on five devices in three schools to see if other children, parents and tutors can use it easily. Once testing has been completed, it will be submitted to the iPhone App Store.

CIARA O'BRIEN The Irish Times