Chameleon: UIKit for Mac OS X

Sean Heber over at the Iconfactory has just published a really awesome project called Chameleon; it's basically an open source re-implementation of UIKit for Mac OS X. With this, you can port apps from iOS to the Mac really easily using all the CoreAnimation-powered UIKit classes you know and love. You can even create a hybrid UIKit and AppKit application that integrates the best bits out of both the Mac and iOS development environment. Twitterrific 4 for Mac uses this framework to share its codebase across the Mac and iOS.

I was lucky enough to get an early chance to port an app to Mac OS X using this, and it blew me away. In fact, I was able to get several apps up and running with very little effort. All the localization work you've done works perfectly too.

SameGame for Mac uses Chameleon, and was ported in a couple hours - a perfect example of how easy to use Chameleon is. It should (approval pending) be on the App Store soon.

Nokia Developer Gift, Pt. 1

A few weeks back, after Nokia had announced they were upending their software strategy for a partnership with Microsoft, they promised us developers a few things; the two key items were one free Nokia E7 and one free Nokia Windows Phone (when they become available).

Today arrived on my doorstep the aforementioned E7, and I thought it would be proper if I wrote something about it here.

First impressions are always important, and the moment I set eyes on this thing I was stunned. The hardware design is absolutely beautiful; a large 4" AMOLED display and aluminum frame hiding a svelte keyboard. The slider tilt-hinge mechanism is so very solid and appealing, and the device is surprisingly thin for a slider. I couldn't help but think how this phone would be a chart-topper if it was running WP7 or Android.

Sadly, it's running Symbian. It must be said, the latest version of Symbian, Symbian^3, is extremely nice. Unlike its predecessors (anyone who had the misfortune to use a 5800 or N97, I feel for you), it's actually designed for a capacitive multitouch touchscreen. Using it reminded me of all the things I loved about Symbian, back before the iPhone changed the world. While Symbian^3 may be great (it's much easier to use than BBOS6 on the Torch, for example), it's nowhere near the class of modern mobile OSes (iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Phone 7). Fortunately, this time next year we won't have to have this conversation anymore.

The camera quality on the E7 is a far cry from the Nokia N8 imaging flagship; there's no half-press to focus on the camera button, and the photos feel more like a camera phone than the N8 (which is on par with a point and shoot camera). Of course, it has a front facing camera for 3G video calls, like nearly every Symbian phone since 2005. It eschews the microSD slot, so you have to rely on the internal storage, and has a dedicated SIM tray like the iPhone.

All in all, this is a very nice gift from Nokia to its developers. The message is twofold; it shows developers that Nokia still cares about Symbian, and wants them to continue development for it, but most of all, it reminds developers that Nokia can make stunning hardware. It makes me giddy thinking about the next step in this giveaway, when Nokia distributes its first Windows Phone 7 devices to all its developers. As much as we in the tech world write off Nokia for using an outdated and limiting OS like Symbian, it's easy to forget that they are still the #1 phone manufacturer in the world. Their hardware is superb, and WP7 is a fantastic OS (though I wish Microsoft would get their updates out within three months of missed release dates... Seriously :-p), and I can't wait until the two come together. Some very exciting times are ahead.

Speed for Windows Phone now available

Speed for Windows Phone 7 is now available worldwide on the Windows Phone Marketplace. It features all the same features you know and love from the iOS version, including the HUD mode.

This marks the first major step of my cross platform push, with Speed now available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Grab it now from the WP7 Marketplace or scan the tag (if you're on device) or Zune (if you're on a Windows machine).

Happy driving!

Consistently Bad

So the end result? Consistency – Yes. But consistently bad.

Dermot Daly on cross platform toolkits for mobile app development.

Nokia + WP7

Today, Nokia announced an Earth-shattering change of course; no longer will they try and play in the smartphone software game, instead they will be licensing Windows Phone 7 from Microsoft.

Nokia has been in dire straits since the iPhone was announced in 2007. They were so blown away by it that they reasoned that it couldn't possibly be real, instead believing it to be a smoke and mirrors play from Apple. When the iPhone launched, and proved to be genuine, they panicked. It wasn't until 2010 that Nokia launched a capacitive touch smartphone to compete, the N8, and though the hardware is top-notch quality the software is still generations behind iOS (and since then, Android, webOS and WP7 have sprung up, all new-generation platforms for the future-computing space).

Symbian^3, the OS shipping on the N8, is the best version of Symbian yet; little-known fact: before the iPhone, I was a Symbian fanboy. I rocked a 7650, N-Gage, N-Gage QD, and a 6630 during the 2000s. There was no other mobile OS as advanced; Symbian was a fully multitasking OS with OpenGL|ES support (the N-Gage and above ran ports of popular PlayStation games like Tomb Raider and Tony Hawks) and a large software library. Then the iPhone happened. iPhone ran OS X, a desktop-class Operating System. There was no way Symbian could ever have caught up to this; it was obvious even then to seemingly everyone outside of Nokia. Nokia may have ignored the iPhone, a $600 device with no 3rd party apps, but they should have been terrified by Android, which sprung up shortly after the iPhone was introduced, to which Symbian lost all but one of its licensees.

Nokia worked on a 'hobby' OS on the side, Maemo. Originally built for Nokia's 'internet tablet' line, the only 'phone' Maemo ever made it onto was the N900 (in late 2009), a device created for developers featuring top-end specs and a shell enabled right out of the box. Maemo was a real, desktop-class Linux OS, first created in 2005, and was clearly what Nokia should have been focusing on to replace Symbian. It wasn't until early 2010 however that they realized this, and partnered with Intel to create the MeeGo project - a fully open-source Linux-based post-PC (smartphone, tablet, TV, in-vehicle) platform for ARM and x86, the spiritual successor to Maemo.

Fast forward a year, and MeeGo is not ready. It's absolutely filled with potential, but it's still a good six months away from being shippable to consumers (less, perhaps, to developers). Realistically, the handset version runs on a single device (the N900) right now, with 2009 specs and a resistive touchscreen. Nokia's choice, up to now, has been to hold out for MeeGo to replace Symbian, and continue to push Symbian until that time comes (in all probability, it would mean another whole year to wait for a credible iPhone alternative from Nokia). Nokia's newly-appointed CEO, Stephen Elop, thinks that's insane, and he's right.

Microsoft offers them a way out.

Windows Phone 7 will give Nokia a credible, modern OS, significantly increasing their chances in the US, and furthermore bolstering the WP7 story by adding the top phone manufacturer in the world to the licensees. Nokia sells a *lot* of phones; this will be a major coup for Microsoft and a shot in the arm for WP7 visibility. Nokia can continue to innovate on hardware (something they are terrific at, their key strength) without having rely on a second rate OS like Symbian (or having to wait until MeeGo is ready).

I'm positively excited to see WP7 as part of Nokia's lineup. I've been using WP7 for months and adore the OS. I'd really like to see them bring WP7 to markets other than the US too, possibly replace Symbian across the board with it. MeeGo, being a Linux-based OS, will always be able to pull in the more technical people to the top end of the smartphone scale, and WP7 will be able to scale down to the not-so-smart-phones too as Microsoft add the lower-tier platform spec they've been promising for WP7 since MIX10 (320x480 screen resolutions, slower processors, etc). Nokia's hardware is top-notch, with impressive build quality. The N8 is an aluminium and glass beauty with an AMOLED screen, 12MPix camera and HDMI out; I can't imagine what they can pull together now they're not encumbered by their software. I can't wait for the day I'll be able to proudly call myself a Nokia fanboy again.

Introducing Speed for Android

Introducing our first release of 2011: the long-awaited Android version of Speed, the successful GPS speedometer app.

Speed is a drop-dead simple speedometer for Android that uses the location data from the GPS to provide a near-accurate representation of how fast you're actually traveling.

Featuring lush graphics and a clear, legible display, Speed is the perfect bicycle, boat or train speedometer. Both kilometers and miles per hour are supported, and a landscape mode for widescreen operation. Simply tap the dial to switch between miles, kilometers and knots.

Speed has been tested on various screen sizes, and should look great on larger devices like the Dell Streak or Galaxy Tab too.

Grab it for under a dollar from the Android Market!

What can I do with it?

"But more revealing was the scene after the party. Well after the other guests had gone, Jobs stayed to tutor the boy on the fine points of using the Mac. Later, I asked him why he had seemed happier with the boy than with the two famous artists. His answer seemed unrehearsed to me: 'Older people sit down and ask, "What is it?" but the boy asks, "What can I do with it?"'"

PlayBoy's 1985 interview with Steve Jobs.

Nexus S + MeeGo | Update: Ubuntu too!

So, looks like the Nexus S can run MeeGo too :o) have a custom kernel going and booted the OS from a rootfs image on the internal memory (didn't have to flash!), but as you can see the display output is fscked (maybe due to the AMOLED?) and the touchscreen isn't working either.

But… I think this is the first non-Android OS running on the Nexus S so far, so thought it was worth a post! Watch this space…

Update: Try it yourself - PROS ONLY

So if you're insane enough, you can try it yourself right now…

You will need to build a MeeGo rootfs first, in ext2 format. Use my kickstart as a base, it has a few niceties like adb support (i.e. the only way you can interact with it right now). With your image successfully compiled, copy it to linux/rootfs.ext2 on your Nexus S' internal memory (completely safe, no flashing required).

My boot.img is here - you will need to use fastboot to boot it (fastboot boot nexuss-meego-boot.img), or you can flash it to recovery if you want to dual boot.

As seen in the photo, you won't really be able to see anything onscreen, but you can use adb to get a root shell like on any Android device. Poke around, play with it, improve upon it, etc. Actually going much further than this is beyond me unless I can find some talented kernel hackers with Nexus S hardware to test on.

Go nuts!

Matching XDA-developers thread here.

UPDATE 2: Have modified the kernel to force full brightness on the screen. It's tinted very yellow, so it's not perfect, but you can see better now!

UPDATE 3 - UBUNTU:

Well, this is more of a side note, but Ubuntu runs fine on the Nexus S using the same process. Check the XDA thread for more info.

MeeGo 1.1 running on HTC's HD2

While bored today, I decided to take a look at getting MeeGo running on the HTC HD2.

The HD2 is very similar to the Nexus One hardware-wise, and MeeGo is already known to run on that, but as far as I know, nobody had ever got it running on the HD2. I set to work, and a few hours later we were up and running!

I followed the instructions at MeeGo's MSMQSD wiki page as I'd done previously for the Nexus One. I didn't deviate much from the instructions at all, except for having the kickstart file produce an ext2 image.

Using the latest kernel from Ubuntu for HD2, and a slightly modified initrd.gz from the same package, I combined these with the MeeGo rootfs image, and with a little tweaking I got as far as the homescreen.

I cannot get the touchscreen working for whatever reason (I'm a n00b, go easy on me), but I did install Android's adb daemon so I can get a shell over USB (which is how I ran the apps in the screenshots below).

Plenty of things aren't working, the touchscreen being the most egregious, like WiFi, graphics acceleration, etc. But it's a start. Anyway, MeeGo is finally running on the HD2, so I thought I should share the story :-)

The HD2 seems unique in its hacking potential, as it can run Windows Mobile 6.5, Windows Phone 7, Android, Ubuntu and now MeeGo - if you ever get a chance to pick up one of these devices, do!

Update:

I have the touchscreen working mostly now, using a different kernel. I'll update this post when I have real info.

Update 2:

Touchscreen and WiFi are now both functioning, but neither are working properly (touchscreen registers clicks as drags, and wifi won't assign an IP address to the interface after connecting). Working on it…

Update 3 - VIDEO!:

Mount iPod nano 6G Resource Partition

When you run extract2g (-4 -A) against the iPod firmware.MSE file, you end up with nine partitions. Eight of those are encrypted, so not much use right now (asides disk.fw and osos.fw, which you can force-boot using iRecovery). The ninth partition is the resource partition, which is not encrypted, so you're able to extract the contents (a FAT16 disk image, no less).

Use the following command to strip the header and extract the file:

dd if=rsrc.fw of=rsrc.img iseek=2 count=284672

(If you're not working from the 1.0/36A00403 firmware bundle, you can strip the first 1024 bytes from the rsrc.fw file, and run fdisk on it to find the sector count - 'fdisk -e rsrc.fw'. For the 1.0 bundle, the sector count is 284672).

Double-click the resulting .img file on Mac OS X to have it mount so you can browse it. There's not a lot of interesting stuff there (fonts, etc), but there are two files of interest: SilverDB and SilverImagesDB. SilverImagesDB contains all the image resources for the OS; wallpapers, icons, buttons, etc, including some curious leftover pieces like camera shutter images.

'Silver' I presume is the name or codename of the UI framework on the iPod's Pixo OS (similar to how 'Purple' was used to describe iPhone apps).

Maybe once we find a way to flash a modified rsrc partition back to the iPod (remember, it's not encrypted) then you should, in theory, be able to modify wallpapers and other images/resources.

iPod nano 6G iRecovery

After musing with James Whelton about his iPod nano homescreen hack (http://nanohack.me/), I set out to see if there was anything interesting you could do to the iPod.

Discovered what may be DFU mode: hold down the restart buttons until you get a black screen (it reboots twice) and iTunes sees the device and alerts you.

Afterwards, modified iRecovery to work with the iPod nano (had to add its DFU/Recovery USB ID) and allow it send files, and tested with some files I had extracted from the iPod nano 6G firmware (using the extract2g tool somewhere from http://www.freemyipod.org/ ).

disk.fw and osos.fw work (one boots disk mode, the other boots to a homescreen). The other files make the nano boot to a white screen, but go no further.

So, basically, it seems we can send encrypted firmware files to the iPod, and have them execute, similar to what is used to jailbreak the iPhone. If the nano rejects the file (i.e. unsigned, invalid), it reboots.

While this by itself isn't that cool, hopefully the info will inspire someone else to finally hack this thing and give us custom 'apps'.

Make sure to click '720p' to see what's going on.

Carriers vs Walled Gardens, WP7 Edition

Finding the whole 'carriers and manufacturers can have their own app store section' situation on Windows Phone 7 quite interesting.

Basically, the carriers and manufacturers of the devices can offer their own exclusive free/paid apps to their customers only, and have a dedicated category in the Marketplace for such. Furthermore they get access to the native SDK so can do things way beyond what apps built with the public WP7 SDK can do (i.e. DLNA streaming, augmented reality, hardware access, etc).

For example, LG offers an application on the Marketplace (that only their phones will see) that allows you change APN/carrier settings to match any market in which LG has a device; something you can't do with the standard APN settings on Windows Phone 7. There are definitely some other very cool free apps from LG;

You can also re-download any of the bundled apps (that you may have deleted when buying the phone).

It's a fascinating solution to the carriers-have-no-power situation on iOS, and carriers-have-too-much-power on Android. I think it's the perfect compromise.

Windows Phone 7

In late 2009 a rumor floated that Microsoft were going to start from scratch with their Windows Mobile OS. At the time, I thought about how cool it could be, but it didn't sound like something Microsoft would ever do.

Well they did it; in about 18 months they started from scratch and created something wholly original and non-derivative of the iPhone, and it's even cooler than I had ever imagined.

Windows Phone 7 is a fresh start, designed around all the principles that Apple has made essential to the modern smartphone market. High-spec hardware, thoughtful and powerful design, multitouch ingrained into the core of the OS, smooth visual performance and animation, a singular app store model and comprehensive developer support. The UI concept is surprisingly (for Microsoft) thoroughly thought out, with minimal chrome - making the content center-stage. The design language, Metro, used throughout the OS is very modern and beautiful, albeit certainly not for everyone.

Windows Phone 7 'just works' in a way I've never seen a Microsoft product do; add your Google and Facebook accounts to the device, and suddenly your contacts are enriched by data from both services, including pictures, status messages, addresses, contact details and more. No setup required, it's all built-in. Your Facebook timeline is displayed in the Contacts app, allowing you to check up on what your contacts are doing. The entire experience is very pleasant. Similarly, the Photos app will show your albums from Facebook and Windows Live too, as well as a Facebook timeline of photo postings from your contacts, of course allowing you to comment on them. Photos taken with the onboard camera will also automatically upload to your Facebook or Windows Live accounts if you so opt.

While the first-party, native apps on the OS are really great, third-party apps are a bit of a mixed bag. They are created using Silverlight, and themed to match the rest of the OS. As such, while they make a good attempt at it, you can still tell that they're not native apps. Controls work in different ways, keyboard input is slightly sluggish, and performance isn't consistent. Naturally, since this is the first ever version of Silverlight on a smartphone, there's a lot of performance that can be added and issues fixed with software updates in time. The most egregious problem however is multitasking, or the lack thereof. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if third-party apps launched instantly, and didn't quit if you locked the screen, but right now both problems are very obvious - apps can take three or more seconds to launch at their fastest. I have no doubt that Microsoft will enable multitasking along with copy & paste in the next year, but right now it's a frustrating experience. The worst part for me is when you lock the screen while running a third party app: when you unlock the phone, the app will start resuming - if you hit the home button before the app finishes, the app will continue launching in the background and the phone will switch back into the app after it's done (even though you explicitly told the OS to go back to the homescreen). Nonetheless, I have been consistently surprised with the quality of third-party apps on Windows Phone 7, all things considered. Furthermore, even the most badly written app still inherits the charming Metro style and fits in very well with the OS.

I have been using an LG Optimus 7 as my main phone for a few days now, and months ago I spent a few weeks with a prototype LG WP7 device as my primary phone. I would be remiss if I didn't say I adore it; the Optimus 7 is very sleek and feels like a premium device, and Windows Phone 7 itself makes me smile every time I use it, as the Zune HD did (it being the first touchscreen device with an earlier version of the Metro design). The seamless service integration really makes the OS pleasant to use, and, since the iPad is my primary Internet device, I am not missing the iPhone one bit.

Microsoft set out to create a new phone platform that was as good as the iPhone, yet offered a rich choice of devices and form factors so that users can choose the one they want. There are clearly rough edges, but nothing that cannot and will not be fixed in due time with software updates. Microsoft really have bet the house on the idea of a consumer smartphone; this isn't going to appeal to the kind of people who choose Android, but it will appeal to the vast amount of people who don't yet own a smartphone. It may even appeal to many iPhone users (as I said, I adore the OS, no less). For a company whom everyone had expected to fade into irrelevance in the smartphone business, Microsoft has pulled a remarkable 180°. I can't wait to see where this ideology leads them; maybe one day they'll rewrite Windows from scratch too ;-)

Retina Updates

Just to keep you informed, Speed and Lights Off are now fully Retina Display ready, joining the previously-updated SameGame.

Aside from that, they have much better support for iOS 4's multitasking, and Speed takes advantage of new features in iOS 4 to be more accurate than ever.

All are free updates, so go get them now!