While browsing my feed of updated iPhone applications, it occurred to me that you can find some of the iPhone deficiencies just by looking at the multitude of applications¹ with similar features:

• streaming radio (this is the one that sparked my observation)
• cut and paste
• wide screen email

I say deficiencies because these features should be included in the default iPhone functionality and software. Obviously there is a lot of demand, or people wouldn't be creating them. Sadly, the latter two aren't really good from a usability standpoint. As with all things concerning Apple and obvious features, why streaming isn't included in the iPod functionality is a mystery.

I'm sure there are other examples. What have you noticed?

There have been a lot of aborted blog posts during the last month as I'm trying to leave the fluff to the other bloggers!

While I should have a substantial post this week containing real code, I do have an announcement. With the help of Brooke Kuhlmann, I have launched Not Just Ruby, a Colorado Springs Meetup group that starts with Ruby, and then includes pretty much all overlapping topics that might be relevant. The goal is to provide Rubyists, and Ruby-curious, a place to share information about Ruby and the other compatible technologies. Think Photoshop, agile methods, accounting, marketing, SEO, and business planning. All of these topics are interconnected, interesting in their own right, but either there aren't groups specific to them, or no one really wants to sit through 2 hours every month. By providing a broad canvas, people may indulge their different interests and learn about things that might be on their neglected to do list.

While Colorado Springs is an awesome place to live, the larger businesses are pretty much in either the Java or .Net camps. Ruby, and it's offspring Ruby on Rails, provides huge productivity gains and cost savings for small to medium projects. Larger projects are trickier, but no more so than Java or .Net. Building a strong and vibrant community is the best way to get the attention of businesses, and by including the parallel technologies, we can virally infiltrate the strongholds of Java and .Net.

This blog entry is being written on my iPhone using the BlogWriter Lite application. Since Blurt supports the MetaWeb API, everything works as it should!

BlogWriter needs some features like supporting multiple blogs, landscape mode, and a quick action button for entering oft repeated text.

Oh, and if Apple could grant us copy and paste that would be great. Thanks.

[5 minutes later]

OK, BlogWriter isn't quite as swift as I initially reckoned, especially for a program that boasts version 3.2.1 (contact?). It basically translates line feeds to line breaks, so if you have any paragraph styles they will be ignored. It also looks like it doesn't retrieve the categories properly, but I'm not yet sure if this is a Blurt problem or not.

Anyone want to write an app supporting MetaWeb API and using something like Markdown for formatting?

Mike Ash wrote an entertaining and somewhat informative article on the iPhone development process. Unfortunately, some of the good, getting started info was left out. Since I just started developing for the iPhone, I thought it might be useful to someone if I itemized what to do and where to read how to do it.

First off, find a fast Internet connection and download the iPhone SDK. If you have the the standard OS X SDK, it appears you have to install the iPhone version after it. I upgraded to the latest OS X SDK and it appeared to have clobbered my iPhone installation such that I no longer had the option to create iPhone applications, so keep the iPhone SDK package nearby.

1. As Mike mentioned, head on over to the Apple developer site and apply to the program. Really, you aren't applying, you are purchasing the right to access the features that allow you to actually test and deploy iPhone applications. No one actually reviews your application -- they just take your money. I already had a developer account, so I'm not sure if my approval arrived quickly or not.
2. OK, login to you account after you receive the approval email address.
3. In order to deploy your application to your device for testing, you need to visit the Program Portal to register your device, create a development certificate, an App ID (I have no idea why people capitalize Id since it is an abbreviation of one word, maybe it just looks less awkward...), and create provisioning profile. Apple provides some nice How To articles on the tab bar of each section.
4. The How To directions for creating a certificate are pretty straight forward. After it is submitted it takes a few minutes to get an email telling you it is ready. I followed the installation instructions and added it to my login keychain, but this seems like a bad place to store it.
5. As with certificates, adding a device is well explained in the How To.
6. Adding an App ID is a little trickier. The name cannot have spaces, so just squish the words together. The Bundle Identifier gives you the choice of com.companyname.* and com.companyname.appname, the former allows you to share keychain access across multiple applications. In general, you probably want to chose the latter format.
7. The provisioning process creates a profile that ties a developer, device, and application together. The XCode Organizer (Window -> Organizer) uses one or more profiles to create one or more build targets. Again, well documented in the How To. You have to save the profile and then drag it into the Provisioning window of the Organizer.

After completing these tasks, you can finally start developing! Test your setup by going through a tutorial like the excellent iPhone SDK Tutorial: Build a Simple RSS reader for the iPhone by Jason Terhorst. There's a missing closing brace in there, but otherwise it is pretty cut-n-paste.

A couple of gotchas I experienced:

• If the Organizer is failing to install your application, disconnect and reconnect your iPhone, possibly rebooting it as well. The disconnect is definitely required.
• To use the simulator instead of installing on your device after clicking Build & Go, select the appropriate simulator from the Project -> Set Active SDK menu.

Feel free to ask any questions, and definitely help me correct any errors!

When consultancies first rear their heads, the ideas are big, the statements are bold, and the desire to change the world runs hot in their veins. OK, sometimes its just about making money, but that's another story. In many cases, consultancies start with just a single person -- the independent consultant!

When I was younger, I would laugh at the websites of "companies" who totaled one person strong, leveraging the majestic plural as they proudly proclaim "we have the experience" or "OUR commitment to YOU is 100%". Of course, there are other reasons for using first person plural besides the cynical view that they are trying to appear more extensive than they really are. One may very well be expecting to add employees, so why write the singular copy?

More importantly, your company is not just you, but extends to your relationships with other people and businesses you need. It is rare to find an independent consultant who can do everything, all the time. One may be able to design a functional, data-driven website, but to make it look great might require an experienced graphics designer. Conversely, the graphics designer may not know how to properly manage hosting or recommend the appropriate hosting provider for their client. In essence, the companies you leverage to run your business are part of your team and affect your clients both directly and indirectly.

OK, so this is probably fudging the term "we" a bit, but in the spirit of "you are what you eat", "you are who you do business with". It is Concepts Ahead's goal to be part of your "we".

We thank you for reading.