Author: Geoffrey Goetz

Back in 2010 when cases started showing up for the iPod nano allowing you to wear your iPod on your wrist as a watch, I could not help but think that the idea was coolest thing I had ever seen. I read the reviews, shopped around, and tried a few of them out before settling on the Lunatik Classic. Soon thereafter, when Apple updated the iPod nano firmware that incorporated clock faces I thought this would be the future of wearable computing. Then when Apple changed the design of the iPod nano to a form factor that prevented it from being worn as a watch, I was wondering what Apple could be thinking.

I have been tempted by alternatives like Motorola’s MotoActv or the Pebble, I continued to wear my iPod nano as a watch for a little over a year in all before the novelty of wearing an iPod as a watch stopped outweighing its shortcomings as an actual watch.  The experience has made me a much more astute when it comes to evaluating the next smart watch I will buy. In fact, I now believe that it is not a smart watch that I am looking for at all, and a dumb watch may be more appropriate. Below is a list of the limitations of Apple’s past iPod-powered “smart watch” solution and suggestions for what would make it better.

Battery required regular charging

Having a 30-pin charging cable just about everywhere I go, one would think I would be accustomed to charging my gear on a regular basis. In fact, I routinely have been charging my iPhone almost twice a day given how much use I get out of it. Watches on the other hand are not something I have been accustomed to charging. On more than one occasion, I would end up forgetting my Nano watch and leave it behind charging somewhere.  It would be left charging at my desk, on an end table, in the car or next to my bed.  I never did quite get the optimum charging cycle down, and eventually ended up charging it every night.

Solution: Use less battery power, embed a longer life battery and possibly charge the device without cables.

Content required daily syncing

When my iPod moved to my wrist, I started syncing my iPod to my iTunes library less and less since it was now my watch.  One of the features I initially enjoyed with the iPod Photo when it first came out in 2004 was the ability to store and show other people photos. I continued to carry around my photos on an iPod for quite some time thereafter, but stopped with the Nano watch in part because it was awkward to twist my arm around in order to show someone my photos.  But that was not the biggest challenge I faced.  In addition to photos, the same was true for all sorts of content that I would access each and every day on my iPod. Music, podcasts, audiobooks, contacts, calendars and even notes.  Being able to sync all of my content wirelessly to my iPhone rendered content syncing content to my iPod obsolete.  Eventually I stopped syncing to my Nano watch all together, and only used it as a watch.

Solution: Wirelessly deliver information to the device like the Apple TV (which is basically just a conduit of information, sitting on your network between your Apple devices and your HDTV)

Earphone cord kept tugging my ears

It seemed like my arms were just a bit too long for most of the headphones I liked wearing. The cord would be whipping itself all over the place, hitting me in the face or getting caught on something as I walked by.  Carrying your music library around on your wrist ends up not being such a good idea.  Because of the the case I was using, detaching the iPod from the watch band required tools to unscrew the casing.  I liked the way the Nano looked as a watch, it was one of the more attractive solutions available, so switching cases was not an option for me.  I just ended up putting the watch in my pocket when I wanted to listen to music.

Solution: Use wireless headphones, or design a stylish and easily detachable band.

Pedometer would skip a step

Some pedometers are designed to be in the soles of your shoes, others are meant to be attached to your hip, and only recently have a few pedometers like the Jawbone Up or the Fitbit Flex have the sophistication of being worn on your wrist.  Having a classic hip pedometer like the one in the iPod nano on your wrist produces inaccurate results that rendered the fitness functionality of the device unusable.  No matter how many times I tried to calibrate the pedometer, it just would not keep up with my steps accurately.  Even placing the watch in my pocket would not completely resolve the issue, so I ended up using a separate pedometer.

Solution: Implement smarter accelerometer technology that can adapt to where the device is being worn.

It just could not tell the time

Don’t get me wrong, the iPod nano knew what time it was. It even had a lot of pretty faces that would display the time. It just did not do a very good job of telling time when I needed to know.  If it happened to have been left unattended for a while, I would see the Apple logo instead of the clock face as it went through its boot up sequence.  Having a design that would leave the screen on all the time would just run the battery down even faster. And entering a darkened room with a flashlight on your writs would not be acceptable. Having to turn on your watch to tell the time sort of defeats the purpose of placing it on your wrist in the first place.  I, like most people, am used to having a watch where you can quickly tell the time by just glancing at it.

Solution: Display the time, all of the time, without emitting a bright light.

So why do I occasionally still wear my iPod nano as a wristwatch? It never ceases to attract attention and pique others’ curiosity. I have had more comments and questions about this watch than any other watch I have ever worn.  And in doing that, what I’ve come to understand is that almost everyone I talk to about it thinks it’s a great idea to have a smart watch. But when you think about how to overcome all of its shortcomings, you start to realize that it does not need to be that smart at all.  Rather than being the place where decisions are made and information is processed — like a smartphone — it needs to focus on fewer tasks and do those things well: like display simple information that can be read with a glance, or capture some basic data points like health statistics. 

Apple is said to be working on a smart watch, but there are few details about what such a device would entail. And as an ex-Apple designer has speculated, based on patents it already holds, the company could tackle many of the aforementioned issues I found with the Nano watch by changing charging technology, using curved glass, and possibly using Siri as an interface.

While I might not be ready to talk to my watch just yet, what I have learned is that there are some things one should definitely avoid:  like streaming media and content on to the device over the air only to stream back off of the device to your wireless headphones does not seem very practical.  Having a high-resolution screen that is often too bright and will just run the battery down even faster is likely the wrong way to go no matter how flexible the glass is.  Just like Apple discovered that all of their customers have ears when they re-engineered their earpods, it will be interesting do see what Apple comes up with they discover that we all have wrists as well.  In my opinion the more like a smartphone your watch gets, the less functional it ultimately becomes.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
• What Google’s Honeycomb Means for Apple and Microsoft
• Mobile App Developer Survey: Profiles, Platforms and Monetization

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.

Lili ($2.99, Universal) is an adventure game where a young botanist finds out that collecting the rare and exotic flowers she is looking for may also free an island plagued by mean spirits.  Built on top of the Unreal 3D Engine, the graphics of this game are only part of what makes this game fascinating. The rich character personalities and the way that the game uses random interactions to tell the story are sure to keep you engaged.

Controlling the female botanist Lili is accomplished with a single touch control. Tap once anywhere on the screen and you’ll walk in the direction you are facing. Tap twice and you’ll run in that same direction. When in motion, a single tap when will stop Lili dead in her tracks. You look around the same way you control which direction Lili will go, by dragging your finger around the screen. Moving your finger on the screen in the direction that you are interested in exploring while tapping to move is an easy and natural gesture to master.  While you can look up, this will not make Lili jump or fly, her feet remain firmly on the ground like any well planted botanist’s feet would.

When Lili first arrives at Geos, an island she thought was uninhabited, she meets and becomes friendly with its local inhabitants know as Constructs.  The Constructs are made of wood and live to serve the island’s other inhabitants, the Spirits. One such Construct, the Trainer, informs Lili that most of the rarest flowers on the island grow on the backs of these Spirits. And these Spirits are mean.  As one would think, surrendering these rare and precious flowers is not something that the Spirits are going to do willingly.  After Lili gets the hang of how to battle the Spirits and take their flowers, she continues to consult with the Trainer who ends up being her guide throughout the game.

The game employs a quite clever, not aggressive, battle system where Lili must position herself on the backs of the Spirits in order to pick the flowers. The more advanced Spirit in the game will kick, throw bombs and grow thorns on their back in an effort to keep Lili from picking their flowers. To harvest the flowers, you tap and pull on their buds until they snap off of their stem. Tap and miss a flower will cause Lili to lose her grip and fall off of the Spirit.  The more flowers you take from each Spirit in each battle, the better your score will be.  If you do not like your performance, you have the chance to rematch the Spirit in an effort to earn a higher score, pick more flowers, and earn more gold coins.

As you explore the island, there are treasure chests, hidden flowers and mysterious rooms hidden behind locked doors that you can explore. Interacting with the inhabitants of the island exposes several mini challenges that you can complete as well as the main storyline of the adventure you learn from the Trainer.  There is a shop keeper, a mail courier, a gambler and even a key maker that each have their own way of helping Lili out.  Even the town’s bell ringer helps Lili find her way to a restricted and hard-to-reach forest within the corridors of the inner city.

The flowers Lili collects can be sold to the shopkeeper for gold coins, which are used as in-game currency.  Lili can use these gold coins to purchase items like food and potions that help her gain strength and fight the Spirits.  There are also items that Lili can purchase that will increase her ability to grip, run fast and stay hidden.  These three skills are also enhanced through powering up Lili’s character traits following each mission.  You can modify the game’s difficulty to make things easier or harder for Lili, and if things are not progressing fast enough for you, you can opt to bankroll Lili’s expedition through in-app purchases.

With a clever female heroine, large 3D environments to explore from a third-person perspective, and a serious search and find element where you uncover the secrets of a strange and mysterious land, the game has a definite Lara Croft Tomb Raider feel to it. Each character you encounter has its own unique personality that keeps the game interesting.  So if you are looking for an immersive 3D game with more of a passive-than-aggressive adventure feel to it instead of a shoot-them-all-before-they-shoot-you strategy, then Lili is just what you are looking for this weekend.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How do developers ride the Siri wave?
• Connectivity means making the machine disappear
• Access vs. ownership: Why UltraViolet has already lost

Several years ago, I was considering buying Toast, a DVD authoring tool. But I decided I was not prepared to pay the full price of $99 for a tool that may prove to be less and less useful over time as Apple was removing optical drives from their Macs.  But when I saw that it was included in a bundle of software for $49, I decided to pull the trigger. App or software bundles are a great way to get good deals on high-quality software.

The following will explain the methods I’ve used over the past few years for finding some great deals on Mac software past few years, through app bundles, price tracking, and clipping the right digital coupons.

Independent app bundles

Bundled software — when five, 10 or even more apps — are sold together for one low price is a great opportunity to try out a new piece of software that you may not have thought to buy in the first place.  There is typically one (or more) big ticket or well known item in each bundle along with several smaller and lesser known items. And sometimes you get something really good you didn’t even know you’d use: a few months after I bought that Toast bundle, I found an opportunity to use Live Interior 3D, one of the apps included.  I ended up using it to model a couple of rooms in my house before purchasing new furniture. So think of app bundles as a way to buy the one app you want, while getting fully licensed versions of several additional software titles you may like — you just don’t know it yet.

MacUpdate Promo (macupdate.com). More of a full-featured app store on its own, MacUpdate has been offering some very compelling software bundles in recent years. One such title that I am always keeping up to date is Parallels.  At least one each year I will find a $49 bundle with Parallels included, and get access to some other great titles that I would not otherwise have purchased. The great thing about MacUpdate is that it will also manage all of your license keys online, and alert you via email when any of the software you have purchased has been updated.  There is even a MacUpdate desktop app that you can install that will keep your purchased software titles in check and notify you instantly when updates are available.  It works very much like Apple’s Mac App Store on OS X, only MacUpdate has been doing this long before the App Store ever existed.

MacHeist Loot (macheist.com). When it first launched, you were not exactly sure if you were participating in an actual heist or not.  MacHeist has made purchasing software fun by introducing a secret agent gaming element which provides even deeper discounts and access to additional software titles referred to as “loot.”  With the first round of online hijinks, you had to hack your way into websites in order to unlock secret codes. This of course was all staged and now there are iOS games like The Heist that you can download and play instead.  These games will link to your MacHeist account to unlock the same discount codes.  At the end of a series of missions, you are exposed to a great bundle of software for a very low price.

The rest of the pack. It’s not that any one of these other bundle sites do not offer equally as good of deals as either MacUpdate or MacHeist, they just are not nearly as well known and offer more of a no-frills shopping experience.  MacLegion, BundleHunt, StackSocial and ProductiveMacs have each proven to be a valuable source of great software for a great value. Another such example is Micromat’s TechTool Pro.  I can usually pick this up for $49.99 along with some other great apps in teh bundle.

Mac App Store price trackers

Nothing is more frustrating than buying anything, including an app from the Mac App Store only to see the price drop the next day.  While none of these services can actually predict the exact day when a developer will decide to drop their prices, some will at least alert you when they do.  Once alerted, you can take advantage of the sale before its too late and you miss yet another great opportunity.

AppShopper (appshopper.com). While you may be familiar with this site for iOS apps, it also covers OS X apps in the Mac App Store as well. With AppShopper, you can look at the pricing history of each app you are interested in and see if the developer has ever offered a discount.  You can also set up an account and be alerted via email when one of the apps on your wish list provides an update or changes its price.

Two Dollar Tuesday (twodollartues.com). The name says it all.  While not exclusively limited to Tuesdays, this site will list current deals for apps that are on sale in the Mac App Store.  They have a Twitter feed that you can follow, or if you like you can subscribe to their mailing list and get weekly email updates on deals.

Appy Fridays (appyfridays.com). Very similar to Two Dollar Tuesday, Appy Fridays will track different software deals.  They also have a Twitter feed you can follow and an email distribution list you can join.

Shopping cart coupon codes

There are still third-party software developers that sell their software directly from their own online stores.  Some of the larger ones rarely, if ever, participate in software bundle opportunities.  That does not mean that they do not offer discounts from time to time on their software in the form of coupon codes.

RetailMeNot (retailmenot.com). Taking coupon and promo codes from both merchants and customers alike, RetailMeNot is one of the top coupon code sites online.  It is easy to find the company you are interested in, just search for the company name or the domain name that the shopping cart is hosted on.  One of my favorites is TheLittelAppFactory, seems like there is always an active coupon code for their great assortment of software.  These codes are legitimate and most time are actually listed on the site directly by the online merchant that sets them up in the first place.

Even more coupon code sites. It never hurts to look everywhere before you give in and pay full retail price. There are many other coupon sites out there, such as CurrentCodes,  CouponCabin and CouponChief to name a select few.

While there are other promotions, app trackers and social coupon code sites out there, I have used each of the sites referenced above at one time or another.  Some sites that I haven’t listed here may offer great deals, but they don’t have the big ticket software titles that I am looking for. Each of the sites listed here have proven to be a valuable source for both great software titles and even better deals.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Forecast: Tablet App Sales To Hit $8B by 2015
• GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013
• How HR can make the case for workforce analytics

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.

Mini Ninjas ($0.99 Universal) is a side-scrolling runner where you play a jumping fighting ninja with a mission to free his friends from captivity.  Don’t be fooled by the cuteness of this game, it is only a disguise: there is some serious gameplay hidden under its shinobi shōzoku.

As with all endless running, side-scrolling action games, you do not need to control your forward movement. You do however need to control both your jumps and your attacks. Tap on the left side of the screen to jump and on the right side of the screen to attack. There is also the ninja skill to run along walls. This one is a little harder to master, and is accomplished by jumping with the left control, then pressing and holding the left control as you run along the wall. Once you release, you fall from the wall back onto the ground.  You are not able to scale every wall, but the ones you can run across end up being the only means of avoiding the obstacle in front of you.

The backdrop for each trail is set in different seasons which you are placed in by the magic of a flying dragon. As you run there are different obstacles you must either destroy or avoid. Along the way you will be challenged by warriors of varying skills and abilities. Fortunately for you they each have a distinctive color and costume that distinguishes them from one another. Some warriors jump, some fly, and others just run, but they all will eventually attack you. When each warrior is defeated, an animal appears in its place and follows you on your journey.

As you run, you also collect gold “koins.” These koins are more than just pocket change as they can be used for one of two purposes. The first is to buy yourself a second life when you stumble on an obstacle or get killed. All you need to do is surrender some of your koins and you will be brought back to life, running once again right where you left off. The second use of the koins is to buy various outfits, equipment upgrades, potions and spells from the village Dojo.  While the outfits and equipment upgrades appear to be more cosmetic, the potions and spells have a real effect on game play.  One such potion, Death Banisher, will extend your run by bringing you back to life when you die.

Throughout the game there are various missions that you must complete: land on top of three rocks, craft three potions, or even defeat three captains of the guard.  Once you have achieved a certain number of missions, your ninja will level up and be granted a new title. You soon find that your friends are trapped in cages and strung up in trees.  You must break open their cage in order to free them. Once free, you will run as the friend instead of the ninja and use their unique abilities for a while. This is also a way of gaining extra life with each run, as you will continue to run as your friend until you stumble upon an obstacle or are defeated by an opposing warrior. At which time you will be transformed back into the mini ninja and continue with the endless running.

While there is a Mini Ninjas game for OS X ($19.99, Mac), the two games are not alike. The characters artwork and storyline of both games are identical, but the Mac game plays more like a 3D character adventure game, not a side-scrolling runner. The Mac version of the game is fun to play and very well done, but there is more than enough here on the iOS version to keep you busy this weekend.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How do developers ride the Siri wave?
• Connectivity means making the machine disappear
• Access vs. ownership: Why UltraViolet has already lost

Things were simpler when you would have a stack of VHS tapes that you recorded yourself next to your VCR.  There was no YouTube or Facebook and the internet was far away from your television set. Fast forward 10 years and not only are there no longer any tapes, but almost every viewing solution out there just assumes that you want to share all of your video files on the internet for the whole world to see.  So what if you just want to view them in your own house on your own HDTV?  The following is a guide to some of the techniques you can use when you just want to watch one of your home movies in the privacy of your own home using the Apple TV, a Mac or an iOS device.

Using your Apple TV

If your home is fully equipped with Apple products, the easiest way to watch home movies privately is by using an Apple TV.  There are several options to display your home movies on your Apple TV, it just depends on which Apple device you happen to have your movies on.

From your iOS device: With point and shoot cameras dropping in sales by 30 percent in recent months, more people are using their iPhones to capture all of their personal moments on video.  Provided you are running iOS 4.3 or greater, when the video files are still on your iPhone, you can view them directly on the AppleTV using AirPlay. Simply turn on your Apple TV, tap on the AirPlay icon and select which AppleTV you want to view your videos on.

Directly from your Mac: If you do not have an iPhone, and you have been off loading your video files from your digital camera directly to your Mac, you can still use AirPlay from your Mac to watch your videos on your Apple TV.  Macs running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion can also stream their entire screens directly to an Apple TV using AirPlay Mirroring.

If you do not have a newer generation AirPlay-capable Mac (mid-2011 or newer), you still have two choices.  The first is an app in the Mac App Store called HUDTube ($4.99, Mac).  This is the only video player app in the Mac App Store that supports streaming to an Apple TV using AirPlay.  With HudTube, you simply drag and drop the video file you want to view, and select the Apple TV you wish to stream to.

The second solution for your Mac is to use a product called Air Parrot ($9.99, Mac).  This product brings the same AirPlay streaming capabilities to older Macs.  One nice feature that Air Parrot has that Apple’s own AirPlay Mirroring does not is the ability to select just one app window.  This feature is called “App Mirroring.”  As an example, with App Mirroring you can display just the QuickTime Player rather then your entire desktop.

Home Sharing from iTunes: You can also use iTunes on your Mac to stream your home movies to your Apple TV.  Beginning with version 10.1 of iTunes, you have been able to share your video files alongside your photos with Home Sharing.  Home Sharing is a way to share your entire iTunes Library on your local network to all of your Apple devices.  It is easy to enable, but does require that you have an iTunes account.  Keep in mind that all Home Sharing will be limited to devices that are configured with that account.

Once you have Home Sharing enabled in iTunes, from iTune’s File menu go back to Home Sharing menu item and click on “Choose Photos to Share with AppleTV.”  Here you can select either an iPhoto Library, an Aperture Library, or any other folder on your Mac containing photos and videos you want to share.  Just be sure to check “Include Videos” when you first set this up.

To watch your shared movies, you must also enable Home Sharing on your Apple TV.  Now you will be able to select any one of the movies you shared by accessing them from the “Computer” icon on the home menu of your Apple TV.  Even thought they are videos, they will be listed under “Photos” of your computer’s Home Sharing library.  Keep in mind that this Home Sharing solution is limited to your devices connected to your home network.

Direct connection with cables

If you do not have an Apple TV connected to your HDTV, the next best thing is to use a cable to connect your Apple device directly to your HDTV.  How you connect to the HDTV will depend on which Apple product you have and the type of connectors your television supports.  For the most recent Macs that come equipped with either a mini display port or Thunderbolt, there is the Belkin Mini DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter for $34.95 which will allow you to connect your Mac to an HDTV using an HDMI connection.

For your iPhone, iPod touch and iPad that still has the older 30-pin connector, you can use the Apple Composite AV Cable for $39.  While this is not an HDMI solution, it does connect to a wider variety of home theater equipment.  There are also the Lightning Digital AV Adapter for $49 that works with the iPhone 5 and latest version of the iPad that come with the new Lightning connector.  Each of these solutions will allow you to play back your movies from your Apple device directly to your HDTV.

Copy files to USB thumb drive

If your Mac is not near your home theater equipment, or you just don’t want to mess with cables every time you want to watch a home movie, you may be able to watch your video files from a USB thumb drive.  Many of todays home theater appliances come equipped with a USB port.  The challenge here is getting your home videos into a format that your device can display.  To convert mine, I have always used Handbrake (Free, Mac).  Handbrake is capable of reading in a wide variety of video formats and can export to the industry standard H.264.

If you are looking for a solution that works just as well, but is available through the Mac App Store, then try Smart Converter Pro ($4.99, Mac).  Like Handbrake, Smart Converter Pro can convert all of your home movies in a batch process.  Unlike Handbrake, it can also encode your home movies to DivX, a popular video format that a lot of older home theater equipment still supports.  Once you have your home movies in the format that you need, simply copy them over to your USB thumb drive and plug it into your home theater equipment.

Host your own UPnP/DLNA media server

Another option is to host your own Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) or Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) media server from your Mac.  Most smart HDTVs, Blu-ray Disc players, Roku and popular game consoles like the XBox and Playstation all can play videos served up by a UPnP/DLNA server.  The problem with this solution historically has been finding a media server solution that your home theater appliance works well with.  This sounds complicated but it really is not.  It is basically the same thing that iTunes does via AirPlay to the Apple TV outlined above.  Just think of UPnP/DLNA as AirPlay for the rest of the home theater market.

For the Mac, there are two popular media server solutions that are UPnP/DLNA compliant.  The first is Plex Media Server (Free, Mac).  Plex has been around for a while now and has done a great job of ensuring that its solution works well on a wide variety of devices.  Once installed, there are tutorials and instructions to help publish your local video files over your home network.

The second solution that does not have nearly all of the features the Plex has — but does a great job at serving up a folder full of home movies — is Serviio (Free, Mac).  Both solutions are easy to set up and will provide access to your home movies to almost any UPnP/DLNA compliant device attached to your home network.

There are several options available to you when it comes to watching home movies at home.  Not every solution requires that you use only Apple products to record and watch your home movies.  Each one offers its own benefits, from being able to play back your recently recorded videos directly from your iPhone, to storing years of home movies on your Mac and being able to bring them up any time you want to view them.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Takeaways from connected consumer’s second quarter
• Who and what to watch in the new era of the living room
• Connected Consumer Q2: Digital music meets the cloud; e-book growth explodes

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.

Flick Champions ($0.99 iPhone, $1.99 iPad) is more than just another sports game, in fact it is eight different sports games all in one.  The difference is that rather than striving to make each game as close to the real thing as possible, the game provides a quick and fun way to challenge your friends and become a true Flick Champion on all of your touch devices.

The eight different sports can play either a quick exhibition match or a bracketed cup challenge.  Within each game there are four degrees of difficulty to choose from: Rookie, Pro, Veteran or VS mode. The first three increase in difficulty while playing in single-player mode, while the fourth choice, VS, is where you literally go head to head against another opponent. Rather than being an online multiplayer experience, VS mode in Flick Champions has both players sharing the same device.  Taking full advantage of Apple’s implementation of multi-touch, each player can touch the screen at the same time.  While some of the sports are played in real-time, others are played like a turn-based game, each side taking turns trying to score points against the other.

You view the playing field from a top-down, third-person perspective. Each game has its own style of gameplay. Soccer is one of the games that has more of a turn-by-turn game play style. Rather than moving your players all over the screen chasing a fast-moving soccer ball, each player occupies a different zone on the field and plays more like a stationary object. Once kicked, and when the ball eventually slows down, it finds its way to the nearest player on the field.  With players occupying a specific position, it feels more like one of my all time favorite table games of foosball rather than a computerized version of a soccer match. As you kick the ball down the field, it pays to pass to your teammates closer to the goal rather than try to make a shot across the entire field.

The gameplay of soccer is in stark contrast of how both hockey and tennis are played. Each of these two games are played in real-time and feel more like a the arcade classic, Pong.  With each experience you do end up chasing either a fast-moving puck or tennis ball all over the place. The biggest difference between these back and forth games lies in one of the other configurable options available to each sport.  In hockey you can change the size of the puck while in tennis you can change the speed of the court.  Each sport has its own configuration that you can use to fine tune how you play the game.

Basketball, on the other hand, plays more like a game of Horse. Each team is given a chance to make a single shot from a different position on the court. You can opt to turn on the extra shot mode, where you keep getting the ball after each successful shot. This “make it take it” option can be really fun when playing against a friend. Bowling, archery and golf have more of a “take your time, set up your shot, and aim carefully” style to them. Golf in particular has its own challenges as it takes on more of a putt-putt feel to it as you must make bank shots and overcome obstacles that stand in your way on the green.  These three games in particular will remind you more of the playful Nintendo Wii Sports than the more realistic style of Electronic Arts’ Madden Football.

The most complex sports game of the eight is definitely football. With football you start each down by selecting a formation for your team to line up in.  This is true whether you are playing offense or defense. Then the opposing team chooses their formation. Each player on the field then charges and pushes against each other. The quarterback waits patiently for an opportunity to pass by sliding your finger around the field and letting go to trow the ball downfield. Sometimes you get lucky and a player breaks away from the pack and scores a touchdown. Other times your pass is either intercepted or incomplete.

The game does initially start out with many of the sports and gameplay options locked. You unlock additional sports and unique gameplay options by earning experience points.  If you like, you can elect to unlock all of the games and optional content through an in-app purchase.  And if you are looking to explore even more sports that play like Flick Champions, you can check out two additional titles in the series, Flick Champions Winter Sports and Flick Champions World Edition.  Flick Champions is a fun game to play on your own and one you can easily carry with you for the times when you want to play a quick and competitive game with friends.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How do developers ride the Siri wave?
• Connectivity means making the machine disappear
• Access vs. ownership: Why UltraViolet has already lost

Mophie announced its second iPhone 5 battery case, the Juicepack Air for iPhone 5 on Monday. Since it’s been just two weeks since its first iPhone 5 battery case was released, one wonders what it could have possibly improved upon. In a word: power.

The main feature Mophie improved with the Juice Pack Air is the size of the embedded lithium battery. While the Helium comes packed with a 1500 mAh batery, the Air comes with a larger 1700 mAh battery. This is the difference of being able to fully charge the iPhone 5 to 100 percent with the new Air, or bring the iPhone 5 up to an 80 percent charge with the Helium.

So what do you give up to gain so much more battery life? Size. The Juice Pack Air’s dimensions are 2.60 x 5.54 x 0.63 inches and it weighs 2.68 ounces, compared to the Helium’s dimensions which are 2.49 x 5.49 x 0.59 inches at a weight of 2.44 ounces. It does not seem like much, but every little bit matters when you are trying to wrap your hands around the longer screen of the iPhone 5.

The one feature that is still missing from both the Air and the Helium when comapred to other Mophie battery pack cases, is the ability to sync via the attached cable. The Mophie Juicepack Air for the iPhone 4/4S will allow you to both charge and sync via the cable. It’s a feature that may be important to you if you still tether your iPhone to offload photos or sync to your music library on your computer.  Mophie claims that both the Juice Pack Helium and Air cases for the iPhone 5 will only allow you to sync wirelessly when charging, hardly a feature of the case, mind you.

The Juice Pack Air will cost you $99.95 compared to the Helium’s price tag of $79.95. The other main difference that the Air has compared to the Helium is color. The black version of the Mophie Juice Pack Air is available now and will ship in seven to 10 days. If, on the other hand, you are interested in either the red or white version, you will just have to wait until March 22.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How consumer media will change in 2013
• Podcast: Mobile winners and losers in 2012 and what to expect in 2013
• A look back at mobile in the third quarter

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.

Heroes and Castles ($1.99 Universal) is a cross between a tower defense game and a role-playing game all in one. While your goal is to defend your castle by building up defenses, you also control your own han- selected hero right in the thick of the battle.  Just think of the hero you select as being a remote control armament you use to defend your castle.

In the single-player campaign mode, you start out by selecting one of the five different hero types you want to be: Knight, Paladin, Engineer, Ranger or Mage. Each type is further configurable with three distinctly themed characters to choose from.  Not only is this the character you will control on the battlefield, it is from this character’s vantage point that you will watch over your castle and command your army. Once gameplay starts, there is a virtual d-pad on the left side of the screen that you use to walk forward and backward as well as strife left and right. You can look around by swiping your finger across the screen, and your hero will walk in the direction you are looking. On the right side of the screen are your controls for fighting and running.

During combat, you are also responsible for issuing commands that will repair your castle, construct new buildings and summon an army to fight at your side. You build up your army by spending your gold to add more units to the battlefield. Depending on how accomplished you are in the game, different unit types will be available to deploy. One of the most versatile unit types are the archers. They stand atop your walls and pick off attacking foes as they approach your castle. You can also employ Pikemen, Giants, Crusaders and eight other types of units to defend your castle. Between each level, units are upgradeable. You use crystals that you earn in battle victories to upgrade your unit’s strengths.  As an example, if you depend on your archers as much as I do, you may want to invest in them by increasing their bows’ range, arrows’ damage and even their health points.

When it comes to building onto your castle, you can dig additional gold mines, upgrade your wooden walls to stone or steel, and even add defensive towers. There are 14 options to choose from.  Just like adding new units to your army, adding more armaments to your castle costs gold. Gold is mined during the battle from your mines.  The more gold mines you add, the faster you earn gold and the easier it is to buy defenses. Just keep in mind that building additional gold mines will also cost you some gold.

There are 31 levels in campaign mode. Once completed, you will unlock an endless play mode. When you think you have had enough defending your castle from attacking forces, you can elect to change sides and try your luck at laying siege to a castle rather than defending one. The strategy and gameplay you employ when attacking a castle is similar to the one used defending it.  Rather than gold, you recruit “Cultists” that will worship you in order to generate the Dark Energy you need to summon more units.

The other difference in siege mode is that your castle is your hero. Unlike campaign mode where you can only level up and change the abilities of your hero between levels, in siege mode you can do this during the battle. In siege mode your castle is your hero. The source of your hero’s evil energy is the Wormwood Tree situated in the middle of the battlefield. So long as the Wormwood Tree lives, you can maintain and increase your evil hero’s power an abilities. This of course means that the knights of the castle will be looking to destroy the Wormwood Tree, for when it is destroyed, your siege is pretty much over.

In order to play a multiplayer game, you must successfully complete the first few levels in both campaign and siege modes.  Only then you can start playing against your online GameCenter friends. In that mode, you choose if you want to either defend a castle or lay siege to it.  What helps this game stand apart from other role-playing tower defense games multiplayer games is its co-op mode. In co-op mode you and your online friend can join forces and fight side-by-side as two heroes on the same battlefield rather than against each other.

By putting you in charge of a character on the battlefield, this game is certain to appeal to those who love action games. Fortifying defenses, building castles and amassing armies will suit the more strategic-minded game players.  Choosing the armaments and units you want in order to level up adds a bit of roleplaying to the gameplay too. The balance between each style of gameplay has been implemented very well.  With the added options to lead the aggressive siege skeleton army or battle a friend online, this game will keep you busy for many a weekend to come.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How do developers ride the Siri wave?
• Connectivity means making the machine disappear
• Access vs. ownership: Why UltraViolet has already lost

One of the questions I get asked every time Apple has a modest update to one of their Macs, is whether or not “now” is a good time to buy a new Mac. Most just want to know how long they would have to wait for the next release, and if it is not too far off, they will wait.  Some Mac refreshes have significant performance improvements while others are just minor updates.  But knowing whether or not the upcoming release will offer a major overall performance boost can help you decide.

There is also a more practical reason for trying to time your Mac purchase just right.  That is the fact that the hardware from Apple will most certainly outlast the version of the operating system it ships with.  A good goal when deciding on a purchase is to maximize the time your new Mac purchase will be able to run on a supported version of Apple’s OS X software.

The following looks at release cycles, processor performance and the history of Apple and Intel release dates to help you determine if waiting for a new release worth it before you go shopping.

Intel providing the performance

Looking at performance, the most important factor to consider is the Intel chip inside the Mac you are purchasing. Intel releases its chips on a tick-tock release cycle. Each “tick” is a major step forward in manufacturing and each “tock” is an improvement on micro-architecture. At this year’s CES, Intel showed off its new Haswell micro-architecture, part of their fourth-generation Intel Core processor family, that will be made available later this year.  Haswell is a “tock” as it enhances the micro-architecture of the chip.

Using the Mac Geekbench scores from Primate Labs for the 15-inch MacBook dating back to the first release of an Apple MacBook with an Intel processor, you can see that (other than the time Apple skipped a “tock” release from Intel) the first release in a tock cycle has had the more significant performance gains than chips that were released during a “tick.”  So provided Apple includes a Haswell chip in its upcoming Mac releases, we can expect significant performance improvements once again since this will be the first release of a new Mac during Intel’s tock cycle of chip enhancements.

The big question is, will Apple have a Haswell chip inside of the next revision of Macs?  It’s always tough trying to predict what Apple will do, but as the above chart indicated, Apple has done a good job historically of releasing a MacBook Pro update within a month of Intel releasing the chipset that is used inside the MacBook Pro. So not only are you getting the latest hardware from Apple, you are also most likely getting the latest chips that Intel has to offer. And if Intel can deliver on its promise, this particular chipset will be just what a manufacturer looking to move away from dedicated GPU chips in their products in favor of sleeker and thinner designs is looking for.

Apple providing the support

Keeping up-to-date with all of the current versions of Mac OS X, including all of the security updates and bug fixes is important too. Being able to continue to run your favorite software on the latest version of OS X also helps.  With each OS X release comes the potential that your favorite software will no longer be supported on older versions of OS X.  It is therefore a good idea to see just how long you can expect Apple to continue supporting the hardware you are thinking about purchasing.

When it comes to the lifespan of a given OS version, Apple has typically been keeping up OS X versions around for about 580 days, or a little over a year and a half. This is the average time from the initial release of a new version of OS X until the date of the last update Apple puts out for that version of OS X. In contrast, we’ve seen, at least historically, a hardware update about every 260 days. That ends up being about two MacBook Pro hardware updates for every one OS X software update.

The current version of OS X, Mountain Lion, supports MacBook Pros back to the June 5, 2007 release of the MacBookPro 3,1, the previous version of OS X, Lion, continues to support MacBook Pros back to the Oct. 24, 2006 release of the MacBookPro 2,1, and finally OS X Snow Leopard, whose last update was released on July 25, 2011, supported all Intel-based Macs, the first of which was the MacBookPro 1,1 released on Jan. 10, 2006. This trend continues all the way back to the original release of OS X 10.0.

If historical data is any indication of future expectations, then it is reasonable to anticipate that the next version of OS X will support MacBook Pros back to the Feb. 26, 2008 release of the MacBookPro 4,1 which was when Apple also transitioned from Intel’s Merom to Intel’s Penryn based Core 2 Duo chips. This trend creates a countdown timer for each hardware release. Set at roughly 2,400 days, or 6.5 years, this countdown starts on the first day each new MacBook Pro is released, not the day you happen to purchase your MacBook Pro.

Timing purchases just right

What it boils down to is timing.  Planning out your MacBook upgrade to coincide with Intel’s “tock” releases should ensure that you are getting the largest performance gains with each purchase.  When you purchase your new hardware as close to the release date as possible, you will maximize the number of days your Mac will be running on the last supported version of OS X.  With evidence of testing for the next version of OS X beginning to show online, it wont be much longer until the mid-2012 MacBook Pros are no longer running on the version of OS X they shipped with.  And if you’re like me, purchasing the extended coverage provided with Apple’s own AppleCare program will certainly help guarantee that your Mac will keep running for at least three of the six years that your Mac will be able to run the latest version of OS X.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The evolution of consumer-media cloud storage
• Siri: Say hello to the coming “invisible interface”
• Forecast: Tablet App Sales To Hit $8B by 2015

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.

Sky Gamblers: Storm Raiders ($4.99 Universal, $4.99 Mac) is a World War II aerial combat game that lets you pilot vintage fighter planes from the late 1930s and early 1940s.  With several different games play styles to choose from, and a rich online multiplayer world to become a part of, this game has depth.

On both the iOS and OS X versions of the game, there are several different flight control configurations to choose from.  It starts out with minimal controls that allow you to drive the plane more like an automobile, and increases in complexity, giving you more control over the different aspects of a full-featured flight simulation experience.  On iOS devices you can choose the accelerometer to control your aircraft by tilting and turning your device.  For the OS X version of the game you can elect to use the keyboard, joystick or gamepad.

In general, when it comes to flying these vintage aircraft in an aerial combat situation, slower speeds are recommended for better maneuvering.  When you need to go fast, there is a booster that will overload your engine. Overload your engine for too long and you will stall. Releasing the controls will slowly stabilize the plane. There is even an autopilot mode that keeps the lane flying on course. To learn how to control your plane, there are a series of six tutorials that will teach you everything from the basic controls of flying in each of the different difficulty modes to how to take off and land and even how to issue commands as the leader of a squadron.

The hangar is stocked with seven plane types, two jets, a couple of bombers, and seven legendary aircraft, including my personal favorite, the Chance Vought F4U Corsair from the 1970s TV program Black Sheep Squadron.  The aircraft are true to the period, and when you get hot in aerial combat, you actually see bullet holes in the glass canopy of your cockpit.

Before you start each mission, each aircraft has three upgrade options to choose from.  The upgrades can increase the firepower, weapon types, speed and accuracy of the weapons.  As you play the game, more aircraft will be unlocked based on the success of your missions.  If you don’t want to wait, there is of course an in-app purchase that will unlock all of the planes and let you choose what you want to fly right from the start.  Also through an in-app purchase is the ability to paint your aircraft, allowing you to fly with a bit of personality.

There are nine single-player modes to choose from. In the campaign mode you can choose from fighting the Battle of Britain or the Asia-Pacific War. There are six missions you must complete in each of the two campaigns. With each mission you can expect to be assigned the task of destroying an enemy target, escorting bombers on their mission, or protecting a land of sea-based strategic assets. Once you complete all of the missions, you can tackle an additional 13 dogfight missions and ultimately see how long you can last in survival mode. Also in single player, you can choose one of six different settings as you play capture the flag, defend the base and team death match.  The best part is that gameplay is not linear.  If you tire of the campaigns, you can elect to play quick game of capture the flag, or see how long you can hold out in a survival challenge.

When you think you are ready and have earned your wings in single-player mode, you can enter into the online world of multiplayer gaming. You can elect to play locally over Wi-Fi, online against a global force of players, or by using Game Center to challenge your friends.  Most of the gameplay styles of the single-player mode are also available as game types when playing online multiplayer games.

The skill of the artificial pilots in single-player mode is sufficient enough to pose a real challenge and get you ready to take on your friends online.  The different styles of controlling your aircraft will appeal to novice and more experienced flight simulator aficionados alike.  As a novice flyer, once you master the game’s basic controls, you can change the configuration and learn to control your aircraft with more of a simulator experience.  With so many different game styles, missions, planes and scenery to choose from in both single- and multi-player modes, there is more than enough to keep you occupied defending the skies this weekend.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How do developers ride the Siri wave?
• Connectivity means making the machine disappear
• Access vs. ownership: Why UltraViolet has already lost

When the iPhone 5 first came out, I had to choose between continuing to use my iPhone 4S with a Mophie Juice Pack Air, or get the new iPhone 5 without an integrated battery pack case. Thinking that I would not have to wait very long for Mophie to come out with a new case designed for the iPhone 5, I decided to go with the iPhone 5. Four months of following the drama surrounding Apple’s new Lightning adapter ensued and last week Mophie released a new battery pack for Apple’s latest iPhone. Now, I finally have the new Mophie Juice Pack Helium for the iPhone 5 that I plan to use day to day.

It looks great, but as I’ll explain, it may take a bit of time to get used to the new model.

With the Mophie Juice Pack Air for the iPhone 4S, my initial impressions were that it made the iPhone a little bulkier. The iPhone felt thicker. With the latest model, the Mophie Juice Pack Helium, the first impression I had was that my iPhone was longer, while I barely notice that the phone is any thicker at all. Getting my hand around the iPhone 5 was already a bit of a challenge because of the slightly larger screen, but now with the Mophie Juice Pack Helium, I find myself scootching my hand up and down the back of the case in order to reach and touch every point on the screen. Like trying to press the home and power buttons at the same time. Until I get more comfortable and find the best way to hold the iPhone in its new case, I may be using two hands more often than I like to perform basic operations.

On the Mophie Juice Pack Air for the iPhone 4S, the top of the case fit around the headphone jack in a similar fashion to other cases. Most headphones would still be able to attach to the headphone jack, but some would require an adapter to fit with the case on. In extreme situations, I could slide off the top of the case to fully expose the headphone jack. In contrast, the Juice Pack Helium on the iPhone 5 blocks access to the headphone jack quite a bit more. This is due to the fact that Apple decided with the iPhone 5 to move the headphone jack from the top of the iPhone to the bottom. Thankfully Mophie included a small adapter cable with the Helium that can reach the headphone jack and attach your favorite headphones.

Both versions for the iPhone 4S and the iPhone 5 come with a 1500 mAh battery, which Mophie claims will extend the battery life of the iPhone 5 by 80 percent. And despite some of the minor inconveniences regarding length and access to the headphone jack I will be using this as my every day case moving forward. Nothing is more annoying than running out of battery life. I really enjoyed my Mophie Juice Pack Air with my iPhone 4S and have been looking forward to getting my hands on the Helium case for my new iPhone 5.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How consumer media will change in 2013
• Podcast: Mobile winners and losers in 2012 and what to expect in 2013
• A look back at mobile in the third quarter

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.

Kick the Buddy: Second Kick ($0.99 Universal) is a stress-releasing game with an often silly and ultimately morbid twist. Acting out your aggressions on an insufferable rag doll locked in a empty room, you are provided an arsenal of weapons, tools and other assorted household objects.

The game doesn’t really start. There are no levels, and there is no beginning or end to a story. There is just a rag doll named Buddy that taunts you until you beat him dead. Once you eliminate Buddy, all is not lost, like the doll Chucky in the popular cult horror film classic Child’s Play, Buddy will shortly spring back to life only to taunt you some more. When it is just you and Buddy in the room, you can simply use your finger to grab Buddy and throw him around the room. The physics keeping Buddy’s body parts together and the fact that Buddy comments on the experience as he lives through it adds to the humorous aspects of the game. Tossing, spinning, throwing and beating up on a rag doll that always comes back for more. Each time with more insulting comments, jests and jeers.

It is not always just you and Buddy in the room. You can choose from a wide selection of weapons as well: handguns, grenades, flame throwers, knives, swords and crossbows. There are also hammers, saws, vice grips and meat cleavers. Just about every object you bring into the room can be used to beat, tear, burn and eventually annihilate buddy. You can even call on a zoo full of animals and weather from the gods to help in your quest.

As you learn new and more effective means of destroying Buddy, you earn bucks that are in turn used to purchase and unlock additional weapons and objects throughout the game. The achievements within the game, which earn you more and more bucks, are earned by simply using all of the different objects you acquire against Buddy, and bring him to a more sudden demise each time.  You can also earn more bucks by playing a slot machine with pulls you earn in the game.  Each pull can win a card; collect all the cards in the series to win prizes.

If you are not earning cash fast enough in the game, bucks and pulls of the slot machine are available via an in-app purchase. Also available as an in app purchase is gold. Gold is used to unlock certain exclusive content. It is important to note that gold is only available through in app purchases, gold cannot be earned.  So think of the items that can only be unlocked with gold as more of a pay-as-you-go option than a means of leveling up your weapon arsenal.

The room choice and attire that Buddy wears can be swapped out to accommodate a variety of settings as well. From ridiculous hats to outrageous costumes and flashy shoes. The modern day equivalent of placing a photo on a dart board, Kick the Buddy will let you swap out Buddy’s face with a picture from your own photo library: perhaps someone that has recently done you wrong. Buddy becomes your own personal voodoo doll — just don’t get too carried away, it is just a game after all.

When you are finally finished, you are able to take a photo of your accomplishment and share it online with your Twitter and Facebook friends. And this may be why the app has been branded with a Valentine’s Day theme just before the holiday. So practice this weekend and earn some bucks and you will be well-equipped to express your true feelings after that important someone forgets that you were meant to be their special Valentine this year.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How do developers ride the Siri wave?
• Connectivity means making the machine disappear
• Access vs. ownership: Why UltraViolet has already lost

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.

Slingshot Racing ($0.99 Universal) is not your typical racing game on a touch device. You don’t steer, you don’t brake, you don’t even step on the gas to accelerate. Instead you use a cable attached to various towers situated around the race track to pull your car to victory.

Driving your race car around a course is more about timing than it is about control. At each turn along the course there is a tower used to steer all of the cars in the race. When you tap and hold on the screen, a cable is shot out from the car and attaches itself to the nearest tower. This cable, when pulled tight, will turn your car inward toward the tower in a circular motion. Very much like swinging a toy plane attached to a string around your head. If you tap too soon, you may latch on to the tower behind you; too late and you will miss the tower completely.

Once you are attached, you continue to press on the screen to keep your race car tethered to the tower.  The longer you hold your finger on the screen, the longer your race car remains attached to the tower via the cable. If you remain connected to the tower for too long, you will eventually circle around the tower entirely. The key is to release your race car from the tower before you turn too far and wreck into the wall.  It’s all about timing your slings to maximize your shots.

Just like in physics, the shorter the cable the faster your race car will accelerate around the course. If you end up attaching your cable too soon, you will end up making a wide turn an proceed more slowly towards the next turn. Higher speeds are achieved by attaching to multiple towers with shorter and shorter cables. Missing your cables at just one turn can drastically slow you down.  How close to the tower you are when you attach will affect the path you take when circling around the tower.  Mastering this technique is key when you are racing to pick up various objects placed around the track.

There are two main game modes to choose from: Career and Tournament. There are several different challenges in Career mode, where it is you against the computer. Each course is designed for a different style of race.  There are courses where you can race against other cars like a traditional race. There are also more challenging courses where you need to collect gears, complete multiple laps in record time, or race against the chopper which will demolish your car if you fall too far behind. Collecting the gears laid out in various positions around the track will prove to be more difficult, as you have to exercise more exacting control of your car.

The second game mode, Tournament mode, is where you can race against your friends. You can either set up a local game and challenge players that are sitting in the same location as you, or you can elect to play against GameCenter opponents. You can either invite specific friends or let GameCenter auto fill your opponents for you.  In local challenges, all of the players use the same device. Up to four players can play in local challenges as each player has their own color-coded corner of the screen to tap to control their car.

There are over 80 different courses to play when you include the bonus courses. You either have to unlock additional courses by achieving a certain number of gears, or you can unlock all content through an in-app purchase. Each course sets up a unique new pattern to master: some include so many turns, tunnels and dark patches of track that it becomes challenging to know exactly where your cable is going to be attached the first time you make it around a course. There is definitely enough variation in gameplay to sharpen your sling racing skills, before you start challenging your GameCenter friends online this weekend.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• How do developers ride the Siri wave?
• Connectivity means making the machine disappear
• Access vs. ownership: Why UltraViolet has already lost

If your household is like mine, then there is a buzz in the air that has had everyone going crazy, and that buzz is Minecraft, a game where you collect and break apart blocks that you then use to build houses and other structures within a virtual world. That buzz has reached a fever pitch now that Mojang has just released an update to its iOS app. As with any app, sometimes the update comes with its share of new bugs (see chart below).  So a good rule of thumb before updating is to save and backup your worlds — since neither Apple nor Mojang will do it for you in this release.

The game has grown into a farming and hunting game where players spend a considerable amount of time growing and expanding their worlds: so much time, in fact, that knowing how to save and back up your worlds should become a routine part of your Minecraft gaming experience. While there are plenty of online forums, wikis and guides that can walk you through steps to set up and maintain online servers for the computer version of the game, there is not much information on how to preserver and maintain the mobile version of the game.

The following guide will outline the steps necessary to preserver older versions of Minecraft Pocket Edition for iOS that you have purchased from the Apple App Store, back up the worlds you have created when playing, and restore both prior version fo the game as well as the worlds that you created with that version of the game. Before you perform any of these steps, it is highly recommended that you backup your device to over the wire to iCloud or locally to iTunes.

Back up your app from iTunes

The apps that you have purchased from the App Store are downloaded to your Mac and stored as part of your iTunes Library in what is called an IPA file. To locate the IPA file on your Mac simply option + click on the app in iTunes and select “Show in Finder.” This will take you to the Mobile Applications folder located in your iTunes Library under at ~/iTunes Library/iTunes Music/Mobile Applications. Here you will want to copy the version of Minecraft that you may later want to restore.

Since version 0.6.0 just came out this week, it is a good idea that you make a backup copy of version 0.5.0 before you download the new version. If you have already downloaded the latest version, use Time Machine to go back and restore the previous version.  You must use the same IPA file that you downloaded from the App Store with your iTunes account, you cannot use someone else’s backed up copy.

Copy your worlds with PhoneView

PhoneView ($29.95 Mac) from ecamm, the makers of Printopia, is an application that can access your iOS devices filesystem in order to access the information stored on your device. This includes the documents that are created by each app on your device. It just so happens that for Minecraft PE, the world files are stored in a manner that is easy to back up and restore. You do not need to jailbreak your device in order to use PhoneView to back up and restore your Minecraft PE worlds.

Before you get started, make sure Minecraft is not actively running on your device. Then using PhoneView, navigate to the Minecraft PE app located under the list of apps you have installed on the device. Here you will see a folder structure that looks something like ./Documents/games/com.mojang/minecraftWorlds. Located within the folder titled MinecraftWorlds are each of the worlds you have created. Each world is stored in its own folder. You can copy all of your worlds onto your Mac by simply dragging and dropping each folder.  Be sure you copy the entire folder.

Restore your app and worlds

The restoration process is just as simple as the backup, only in reverse.  Before you can restore the prior version of an app using iTunes, you must first remove the latest version from your iTunes Library and your device. Once removed, you must shut down iTunes and copy the previous version of the app back into the same Mobile Applications folder you originally backed it up from using the Finder. Restart iTunes and you will see Minecraft PE in your list of apps once again. Now all you need to do is attach your device to your Mac and drag and drop the app from within iTunes back on to your device.

In order to restore your worlds, you will just drag and drop the backed up folders located on your Mac back onto your device using Phone View. Again you will navigate to the Minecraft PE app located under the list of apps you have installed on the device and locate the same MinecraftWorlds folder you originally copied the backed up worlds from. Then you simply drag and drop them back on to your device.

This technique does not require you to jailbreak your iOS device, and cannot be used to copy someone else’s IPA files onto your device.  It will only work with IPA files that you used your devices iTunes account to purchase.  I would not recommend mixing and matching worlds that you create in more recent versions of Minecraft, with restored backups of games from earlier versions of Minecraft. Worlds that you have created or modified in version 0.6.0 of Minecraft PE should only be accessed by version 0.6.0 and later. It is therefore a good idea to keep each backup in a folder that you can clearly identify which version of Minecraft was used to modify it.  This technique will help you keep the Minecraft PE worlds you spent so much time creating.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Mobile Q2: Smartphone growth surges; iPad’s rule continues
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• How to deliver the next-generation web experience

You may be familiar with purchasing books and magazines for your iPhone and iPad, but have you ever borrowed an ebook or digital edition of a magazine from your local library?  As more and more local libraries are adding online digital catalogs of books for borrowing, it’s a great — and cheaper! — way of building up your digital library for free.  After trying out a few methods for using the resources of your local library to borrow electronic versions of your favorite ebooks, magazines and audiobooks, I’ve written up a quick guide to follow.

Borrowing ebooks with OverDrive

Most libraries are choosing a third party to host and manage the lending process.  One such service provider, OverDrive Digital Downloads, is what my local library uses. OverDrive currently supports 18,000 libraries with millions of readers. The experience is not quite what you would expect if you’re used to Apple’s integrated iBooks app or Amazon’s Kindle bookstore. But it does work, and once you have the ebook on your iPhone or iPad, the reading experience is just about the same.

Getting Started: The first thing you will need is an active account at your local library.  This will be used to identify you as a borrower and ultimately limit the number of ebooks you can have checked out at any one time.

Selecting an e-reader: For most of the titles available from my local library on OverDrive, I have only two main choices:  to either use Amazon’s Kindle solution on my iPhone, iPad and Mac, or to use OverDrive’s own e-reader client for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.  As a possible third option, you can also elect to use Adobe Digital Editions for the Mac.  But be aware: the one client that you will not be able to use is Apple’s own iBook e-reader for iOS, as it does not support the DRM solution that the other readers support.

Borrowing an ebook: Browsing the online library of ebooks is the same experience for all e-eaders.  You will select a book via your browser.  I found that using Safari for OS X and iOS work just fine for this.  Once you associate your library account with OverDrive, you can create wish lists and place holds on books you want to read.  Each title in the library is limited to a predetermined number of copies that the library can lend out.

Downloading the ebook: If you place a hold on a book, you will be notified via email when the book is available.  Depending on your e-reader, once you log in to your library account, you will either download the file directly to the OverDrive e-reader client on your device, or you will log on and register your library account with Amazon, and check the book out directly to your Amazon account.

Since I already have all of my devices registered with my Amazon Kindle account, as soon as I checked out the ebook it was available on all of my devices for me to read.  So reading any ebook that I check out from the library is the same experience on my Kindle as with any other book in my library.  Even my bookmarks sync across all of my devices.

Digital magazines with Zinio

The experience with magazines is different since my library chose to go with Zinio as its partner.  Zinio has been around for a while and was bringing digital versions of popular magazines to your iPhone and iPad long before Apple introduced iOS Newsstand to the world.  There are no choices here, you have to use the Zinio reader for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.

You do have to sync your Zinio account with your library account, but once that is done, as soon as you select a magazine from the online library of digital magazines available for lending, it instantly shows up on your Zinio account for reading.  While you won’t have the same connivence as you would with a receiving updates via a paid subscription, selecting individual releases can be more cost effective since borrowing is of course free.

Borrowing audiobooks

I was also happy to see that you can use OverDrive to check out audiobooks from the library as well.  To do this, you will have to use the OverDrive client for Mac, which does come with some restrictions: You will not be able to borrow any audiobook that in only available in WMV format.  You will be limited to borrowing only MP3 audiobooks.

You will be able to listen to your audiobooks in your favorite audio device as the OverDrive client for Mac supports exporting audiobooks to devices like an iPhone, iPad and iPod.  You are even permitted to use the OverDrive client to burn an audiobook to CD.

Overall the experience was a positive one.  It takes a little to get used to the process of searching for electronic books and magazines that will work with the format your e-reader supports, and ultimately to get them working on your preferred devices.  But after you have done it a couple of times, it’s really not all that complicated.  And it can definitely help expand your reading list and your own personal digital library without costing you anything.

Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy during this weekend.

Gesundheit (Free Universal) is a puzzle game with plenty of action. In what can best be described as a land of make believe, it is up to one little pig to free his world from invading monsters, not with blood, sweat and tears, instead all this little piggy has is his snot.

The story starts out with all the pigs in a village making fun of one sick little pig that can’t help but sneeze all over everything. And like poor Rudolph, they exclude him from their little piggy games — not because his nose glows, but because it blows. All but one pig that is: one little girl pig befriends our hero and hands him a handkerchief for his sneezing snout. One day the village is invaded by an army of huge monsters that only the sneezing swine’s snot can stop. For some strange reason these invading monsters can’t get enough of the stuff. And that ends up being the only effective weapon to use against the monsters and save the village.

Throughout the game, snot is used to lure the monsters from place to place and ultimately into a deadly trap. At the center of this death trap is a giant fish-like worm that eats up anything that steps into its mouth. You job is to ensure that the worm eats all of the monsters that our runny-nosed runt can bring it. Leading each monster to its doom is not so easy, as the worm would eat our little squealer just the same as it would one of the monsters. To add to the challenge, the monsters can run slightly faster than the pig that makes staying ahead of them a bit of a challenge. Fortunately their attention span is limited to what they can see; ducking around a corner causes the monsters to lose interest and take a little nap.

Moving around in this game is accomplished by simply tapping the location on the map that you want to go to. Navigating around the map is best when making smaller moves where you control the route taken. Tap on a location far away from the pig and you may take a different route and end up walking right into the trap. You can also sneeze on command and produce a big ball of snot that will attract and delight the monsters. To do this, you tap, hold and drag on the pig. An ‘X’ will appear in the location that the snot ball will land. While continuing to hold down and drag you finger around the screen, you can carefully place the snot ball anywhere you want. And if it lands within the line of sight of a monster, the snot will wake it up and attract their attention.

Each level is laid out like a labyrinth with huts, trees and waterways used as the walls. Blocking movement in the game is not nearly as important as creating a series of blind spots that can be used to hide the pig from the monsters’ line of sight. Weight-based buttons are introduced early in the game that open gates that block off sections of the village.  There are also teleporting stars, which will jump you from one location to another. Whether or not the trap is in the middle of an open area, or at the end of a dead-end passageway, these obstacles make luring each monster into the trap difficult no matter where it is located. This keeps things interesting as your approach to solving each level is different.

Making the game a real pleasure to play are the artistically drawn scenes, colorful village huts, and personable characters contained in each level. Equally as enthralling is the playful randomness of the soundtrack. These two aesthetics of the game work well together and complement the silliness of a pig sneezing up snot balls to save his village from an attack of mucus-eating monsters.  While the controls are basic and the obstacles are few, the levels can still get quite tricky and will require some thought.  You can’t just come out blowing your nose all over the place and expect to complete a level.  Misery loves company, so if you happen to be in bed with the flu this game may be just what the doctor ordered.

Managing an application’s state can sometimes require complex interaction with persistence and messaging with various resources, or it can be as simple as keeping track of a counter from one view to the next.

Two popular techniques to pass references to objects from one view to the next are to create properties in the Application Delegate, or to continue to pass references from one view to the next like a relay race passes a baton from one runner to the next using a series of carefully placed update methods making for an allocation nightmare and increase the opportunities for memory leaks or the hard to track down crashes. Sometimes this need in programming is referred to as implementing Global Variables. There is also a well established design pattern that can assist with this need as well, it is called the Singleton Pattern.

Singleton Pattern

The Singleton Pattern is a derivative of the Factory Pattern that ensures that one and only one instance of an Object can ever exist. By creating one or more implementations of the Singleton Pattern within a given application, the concept of ‘global variables’ can better be managed through tighter control. This allows for what is called lazy instantiation. If you do not need the variable based on what is going on in the application, then do not ask for or create an instance of one.  In Objective-C, Apple has outlined the recommended technique for implementing the singleton pattern.

static MySingletonClass *sharedGizmoManager = nil;
(MySingletonClass*)sharedManager{
  if (sharedSingletonManager == nil) {
    sharedSingletonManager = [[super allocWithZone:NULL] init];
  }
  return sharedGizmoManager;
}
(id)allocWithZone:(NSZone *)zone{
  return [[self sharedManager] retain];
}
(id)copyWithZone:(NSZone *)zone{
  return self;
}
(id)retain{
  return self;
}
(NSUInteger)retainCount{
  return NSUIntegerMax;
}
(void)release{
  //do nothing
}
(id)autorelease{
  return self;
}

But you may find that the following is all that is necessary:

Singleton.h

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
@interface Singleton : NSObject {
}
+ (Singleton*) retrieveSingleton;
@end

Singleton.m

#import "Singleton.h"
@implementation Singleton
static Singleton *sharedSingleton = nil;
+ (Singleton*) retrieveSingleton {
  @synchronized(self) {
    if (sharedSingleton == nil) {
      sharedSingleton = [[Singleton alloc] init];
    }
  }
  return sharedSingleton;
}
+ (id) allocWithZone:(NSZone *) zone {
  @synchronized(self) {
    if (sharedSingleton == nil) {
      sharedSingleton = [super allocWithZone:zone];
      return sharedSingleton;
    }
  }
  return nil;
}
@end

Try and keep each singleton’s scope limited to manage only the information that is related to a particular use case and not as a catch-all for all global information across the application. It is probably best to utilize each singleton as a delegate to the information it is responsible for managing, and not use it as a means to gain access to any objects it has associations with. Although on the iPhone, and when being used in primarily a read only or a write seldom implementation, the risk of writing code that is not thread safe increases when utilizing shared objects. Keeping concurrency in mind, and utilizing the singleton as a delegate to the information at hand, one can watch out for multi thread related issues and deal with them in kind. One thing to watch out for would be include updating or setting properties of the singleton from within an implemented perform selector or a notification. If concurrency issues do arise, it may become necessary to synchronize access to certain properties or methods.

No, not the AppDelegate!

So why not just keep adding properties to the AppDelegate? After all, the AppDelegate is a singleton as well and is therefore accessible by invoking the sharedApplication class method. The problem with this techniques is that you end up loading up the application with too much information that may or may not be necessary depending on what functions the user chooses to evoke. It could also lead to longer and longer startup times. Get the application started as quickly as possible, and don’t leave the user hanging for too long.

What about Global Constants?

Keep in mind that this is not the best technique to employ if all you need is a means to define and gain access to Global Constants. The quickest way to do that is to create a Precompiled Prefix Header file and include that in your project. By default, most of the projects generated in XCode that create iPhone Applications will include a file with an extension of .pch. This file will initially look like the following:

#ifdef __OBJC__
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#endif

One can then add any number of #define statements that will be included in all header files across the entire project.

#define SOME_STRING_CONSTANT @"My Important String"

Conclusion

The Singleton Pattern can be used to make the complex and ugly means of sharing a simple variable between two different views or view controls an easy task. If used sparingly and some basic guidelines are followed as not to bloat the application and create a multi thread nightmare to debug, this technique can be quite useful. Much more so than passing Objects back and forth among views or by breaking the encapsulation of the AppDelegate by assigning it more responsibility than it should have.

References

• Mac OS X Reference Library – Cocoa Fundamentals Guide – Creating a Singleton Instance
• iPhone OS Reference Library – UIApplication Class Reference
• Mac OS X Reference Library – Xcode Build system Guide – Using a Precompiled Prefix Header

---

Does one set out to create a computer literate family, or to cultivate a creative family familiar with the modern communication capabilities of today’s age? The distinction is subtle, but the benefits of the latter strongly outweigh the former, and thankfully is still quite easy to set up.

The first is to merely grant access to an overwhelming environment and expect time itself to wear down the mental faculties of the unsuspecting, in hopes of some sort of miraculous and divine intervention. In other words, rely on dumb luck by clicking on everything in sight until one achieves success.

The other path is a much narrower one where every user can quickly gain access to that which they desire most. With children, the key in either situation is to find a means to where the young user grows a sense of self-confidence, realizing that they are in control, and a sense of accomplishment that they know how to do it for themselves. This is where the iMac can learn from its little siblings: the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. With these devices, access to what one desires is about all one can do when picking up the device for the first time. The goal is to create just as easy to access of a user interface on the iMac, as one has come to expect on the iPad.

Creating a safe environment for the younger Mac heads in your family, while allowing them to explore and expand their minds, is not only possible in Snow Leopard, it is pretty straight forward and simple to pull off. Once you know that it can be done, it is simply a matter of doing it. This article will assume we are targeting the very young pre-school aged Minis. Knowledge of their ABC’s is a bonus, but not absolutely required. The only time they will be required to interact with the keyboard for input will be their password. And since a separate account will be created and locked down, allowing a simple password will not compromise security to such a degree that one needs to worry too much about. The focus will be on creating large, clearly identifiable icons that can be clicked on to allow access to some of the basics of the Mac.

Creating a New User Account

If you are not familiar with creating Accounts on a Mac, you will need to open the System Preferences application from either the Apple Menu, the Dock, or in the Applications folder. Once in the System Preferences, click on the Accounts icon. In order to keep things simple and consistent, first take a look at the Login Options section of the Accounts window. There may be times when your Minis want to use the computer, and it is not on, or it is asleep. It is important to try to keep the experience as consistent as possible each and every time they want to access the computer. So it would be best to turn off Automatic login, display a list of users on the login window, and to show the restart sleep and shut down buttons.

At this point, go ahead and create a new user account. Create a standard account. Various preferences will need to be modified by logging onto the account before the parental controls will be enabled. So do not enable Parental Controls just yet. For consistency sake, the Account Name may be the same as the child’s e-mail or other online account ID like their MobileMe family account ID. Use their full name as the Full Name since this is something that they will be learning more and more as they enter pre-school and kindergarten.

Make the password some sequence of characters that the child will be able to remember. This will break with all security conventions as it will likely be a weak password. The account will be locked down, and access to the full file system will not be permitted. This is also the first opportunity to allow unfettered access to the Mac, and a strong password that the child does not know will limit their access to the Mac and require someone else to log on for them. If this is a dedicated machine for their use only, and is in a permanent secure location (not a MacBook/Laptop), allowing for a simple and weak password may not be an issue. Using the password hint will help later on once the child learns to read, unless one chooses to make the hint the actual password.

Once the account is created, establishing an icon with the account will help make the account unique and identifiable. At first, they will recognize the icon, and soon identify with the fact that their full name is also being displayed. This icon will be displayed on the login prompt when they first access the Mac. The icon should be an image they can relate with, like their favorite toy, or a self-portrait. Just ensure that it is unique from the other account icons, and is something that the individual will not have any problems remembering. Keep in mind that depending on the age of the user, reading may not be a skill yet mastered. And in some cases, the full alphabet may not be known (yes, Mac users can be that young and still get things done on the Mac).

Some of the initial security setup lies in how things are currently configured on the Mac you intend to allow the Minis to use. It is more than just a good idea to create a separate Administrator account on all Macs and not allow any other user accounts to administer any Mac, it is essential. This is configured separately for each User account in the System Preferences’ Accounts window:

You may also want to configure any other accounts to log off after so many minutes of inactivity, and be sure that all remote access to the machine is disabled.

NOTE: Do not enable parental controls until after the user account has been accessed and configured properly. This is very important and will prevent one from having to re-establish the parental controls over and over again and again for each tweak of the user preferences. This is because one of the applications that the user will not be permitted to use will be System Preferences. These controls can be used to allow quite a bit of freedom for the Mini user without having to enforce constant adult supervision. This freedom to explore on their own creates a sense of freedom and self-confidence that just simply cannot be achieved with constant adult supervision. So rather than direct adult supervision, the Mac allows one to configure and control to a staggering degree indirect adult supervision.

Configuring the Account with the Mini User in Mind

Now that a user account is created, go ahead and log in to the account. Remember, the less there is to click on, the less things can go wrong. The goal is to eliminate as many unnecessary options as possible, provide a consistent experience with each successive login, and maximize the font and visuals as much as possible. For the most part, this will lead to disabling most of the advance features, and controlling the behavior of the mouse, keyboard and screen as much as possible. Go back into System Preferences and proceed to configure the user account.

Appearance – Disable the number of recent items by setting Applications, Documents and Servers to ‘none’.

Spotlight – Uncheck all searchable items, and disable the shortcut keys. This is a user specific setting and will only limit the search capabilities of the specific user that this preference was configured for. It may also be a good idea to establish which areas of the Mac should not be searchable under any circumstances.

Desktop and Screen Saver – Do not randomize anything, keep the desktop image clean and clear of clutter by selecting a solid color. The desktop will be where all shortcuts will be created to launch the applications and web pages. As an added bonus, think about purchasing a custom screen saver like SereneScreen’s Marine Aquarium for Snow Leopard.

Dock – This may not make much sense at first, but minimize the Dock to its smallest size, and hide the Dock. The goal here is to keep the individual away from the Dock entirely. All access to applications and websites will be made accessible via shortcuts on the Desktop. It is also important to manually remove all icons from the Dock. The only two remaining icons on the Dock that will not allow themselves to be removed are the Finder, and the Trash. Think iPad.

Exposé and Spaces – Disable all hot corners in Exposé and disable Spaces entirely. Kids tend to overcompensate their mouse movements and this could be a confusing topic to broach when they constantly hit the hot corners of the screen. Since there is very little functionality that they will need to utilize, it is best to simply disable all opportunities to access other features and applications via hot corners.

Task Bar Icons – Keeping consistent with the theme of minimizing the number of opportunities for a stray mouse to click on something, hiding as many of the tray icons as possible is a good idea as well. This includes but is not limited to the Displays, Airport (Network), Battery (Energy Saver), Clock (Date and Time), Bluetooth, and Time Machine. If you have not been able to locate all of the preferences that add items to the Task Bar, simply hold down the command key and drag the items off of the task bar one by one. Just as you remove items from the Dock.

Finder

Now click on the desktop and the Finder menu should appear on the menu bar. Under the Finder menu, select Preferences. Under General, do not show any items like hard drives and peripherals on the desktop. All access to each application and website will be individually and directly controlled via a shortcut from the desktop. New Finder windows should open to the Desktop as well. Basically direct all attention to the Desktop as much as possible. For the sidebar, uncheck everything so that the sidebar is completely bare. When performing a search, search the current folder only, which again, will hopefully only ever be the Desktop.

Toolbar – Open the Finder and from the View menu, choose to customize the Toolbar. Remove all tools from the toolbar and leave it as bare as possible.

View Options – Right Click (option+click) on the Desktop and select Show View Options from the menu that pops up. If the dialogue that displays does not say Desktop at the top, click on the desktop. Once you are sure that you are modifying the View Options for the desktop, maximize the icon size, grid spacing and text size. Keep the label position at the bottom and continue to show both the item info and preview. The interesting part will be to sort the icons by their respective labels. This will give more control over the positioning of the labels, and create a color coordinated option for organizing utility applications from educational and fun applications.

Safari

Within Safari, some of the basic configurations to establish include either setting up a blank home page, or a familiar home page; perhaps one that was created just for them with large image icons of their favorite websites. Additionally be sure to turn off all of the tool and status bars. This will initially create an experience that each web site is a separate ‘thing’ accessible from a desktop icon. This is perfectly acceptable at first and can be a modified behavior once the Mini user learns that all of the ‘sites’ they are accessing are not on the computer, not in the house, and in some cases not even in the country. Be sure to edit the bookmarks and remove all pre-populated bookmarks as well.

Setting Up Parental Controls

Everything is now configured just right and the account is ready for parental lockdown. Kid Proofing a Mac With Parental Controls is now possible. Attempting to do this any earlier and one will find themselves approving access by allowing once way too many times to be the best means to get everything configured. At this point, log out of the account that was created for the Mini user, and log into an administrator account. While it is not absolutely necessary to login to an administrator account, this will eliminate the prompts to authorize each action that is taken. Disabling and Enabling Parental controls will prove to be a real pain as well. Especially when you have an extensive list of e-mail, and chat accounts, as well as a good list of web sites that you want to grant access. Not to mention, establishing a complex set of times and hours that the little one can use the Mac. The preferred route is to create a user account, strip it down to the bare minimum required to make things go, and then to enable parental controls to lock down everything else.

The first choice is to use the simple Finder, or to only allow access to selected applications. While the simple finder is nice, and is what all of the configuring and messing around attempted to achieve to a lesser degree in the above recommendations, in the end, the ability to limit what applications the user has access to outweighed the simplification of the Finder. The recommendation is to utilize the “Only allow selected applications” feature of Parental Controls. From here, one can select exactly what applications the user can launch. At first, un-select all applications and log on to the user account and see what all is possible to accomplish. It is also recommended to disable the ability to administer printers, change passwords, burn CD/DVDs, and even modify the Doc.

Conclusion

Empowering the Mini Mac users in one’s life is simple and straight forward once one gets the hang of creating a user account, customizing System Preferences, and setting up parental controls. The rewards of having a Mini user realize that they are in control and they are able to make the Mac do what they want it to are huge. Playing with Photo Booth and communicating with the grandparents via video over long distances is worth all of the set up. It will not be too long before the Mini user is confident in their own skill set enough to go and check on their own to see if Grandma or Grandpa are online.

All too often an iPhone application’s launch sequence is an overlooked detail. The most common approach is to misuse the provided Default.png file as a splash screen. As it turns out, this detailing of an application is more than a little challenging if you want to get it right and stay within Apple’s guidelines.

The key to a smooth and professional looking launch sequence starts with knowing exactly where the application will land at startup. Some applications start at exactly the same place each and every successive launch, others attempt to preserve the application’s state and launch into the screen where the user last used the application. Keeping this in mind can change the strategy of how the launch sequence is implemented. This includes screen orientation as well as how and even if the status bar it to be displayed.

One may witness flickering of the status bar from blue, to black or from black to blue during the launch sequence. This is mainly due to the fact that there are two places to change the behavior of the status bar. One is hidden in the info.plist file, and the other is typically via code in the Application Delegate’s applicationDidFinishLaunching method. The info.plist configuration is used before the main window is loaded, and the code in the Application Delegate is used during the launching of the main window. The reason one may want to utilize both styles is to take advantage of a full screen splash page, and then enable the appropriate looking status bar once the application has finished loading.

For the purpose of this example application, we will assume that the user state is preserved between executions, and we do not know exactly what the screen will look like when the user enters the application. We will therefore be implementing a full-screen splash view that will have the status bar hidden during the launch sequence. Once the splash view has disappeared, a black opaque status bar will be utilized throughout the application. It is also assumed that the application will launch in portrait mode, and that the first screen the user will see will also be in portrait mode.

Editing the Configuration File

The first order of business is to take care of the status bar. In Xcode, locate the info.plist file for the project. To add an additional property to the plist file, simply select one of the entries and click on the plus tab that appears to the right and select Status Bar Style from the drop down list:

There are only three different styles to choose from. Try each style out to see which one fits the needs of the application being developed. For this example we will set the style to UIStatusBarStyleDefault.

UIStatusBarStyles:
UIStatusBarStyleDefault — Gray (the default)
UIStatusBarStyleBlackTranslucent — Transparent black (specifically, black with an alpha of 0.5)
UIStatusBarStyleBlackOpaque — Opaque black

If on the other hand the desire is to hide the status bar when the application launches, then yet another property needs to be set. In this case, add the “Status Bar is initially hidden” property to the plist file and be sure to check the box next to the property.

Editing the Application Delegate code

So now that the status bar style is set, and initially hidden, how does one get the status bar to display again? You can actually turn the status bar on and off programmatically via code. This is particularly handy when the need arises to display a full screen view, such as the splash screen this application is utilizing. In the applicationDidFinishLaunching method of the Application’s designated AppDelegate class, add the following line of code to make the status bar visible again:

- (void)applicationDidFinishLaunching:(UIApplication *)application {
    // Override point for customization after app launch
    [window addSubview:viewController.view];
    [window makeKeyAndVisible];
    [[UIApplication sharedApplication] setStatusBarHidden:NO animated:YES];
}

Adding a Default.png Image

Surprisingly, the size of this file is not as important as the naming convention of the file. Default.png is a case sensitive PNG file. The image should be 480×320 according to Apple. Following Apple’s conventions, this image should look like the view that the user will see when the application has launched, and not the actual splash screen.

Xcode provides a mechanism to create a Default.png file from an attached device running the application. From the Organizer window, select the device, click on screenshots and click capture. To make that screenshot your application’s default image, click Save As Default Image. Even though the image that is created includes the status bar as it looked when the screen shot was captured, the iPhone OS replaces it with the current status bar when your application launches. Just to be clear, this is not a splash screen…not yet.

Long Launch Sequences to Varying Views

So far, this is what most applications will implement if they implement any sort of controlled visual experience when the application launches. If you follow Apple’s guidelines, and the image you produce is the first screen that the user will see, all is good. Except, what if the launch sequence is not as fast as the user expects? What if the application preserves state and lands on a different view based on the users last know state? Then this technique is not up to the task.

Photoshop a branded image representing the application and save it as a PNG image sized at 480×320. Do not include a status bar of any kind in the image file being created. Add this image file to the project. Now the application sort of has a splash screen, through a misused implementation of the Default.png file. To correct this, simply add an image view as a property to the App Delegates header and create it as follows:

    splashView = [[UIImageView alloc] initWithFrame:CGRectMake(0, 0, 320, 480)];
    splashView.image = [UIImage imageNamed:@"Default.png"];
    [window addSubview:splashView];
    [window bringSubviewToFront:splashView];

At this point, the image view is utilizing the exact same image file that was created in Photoshop. There’s no chance of the initial view being different than the Default.png file at this point. The one remaining problem is the timing of when to remove the image view from the subview. This can be handled in one of two ways…

Controlling the Duration of the Splash Screen

The first option is for those with quick startup times that just want a splash screen. In this situation, create a method to remove and release the splash view, then calling that method via a timed perform selector call as follows:

    [self performSelector:@selector(removeSplash) withObject:nil afterDelay:1.5];

The removeSplash method does just that, removes the image view from the subview and releases the object.

    -(void)removeSplash;
    {
      [splashView removeFromSuperview];
      [splashView release];
    }

The second method uses the same remove splash method, but relies on the built in event management to trigger when the method gets called.

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserver:self
          selector:@selector(saveClaim:)
          name:@"RemoveSplashScreen"
          object:nil];

Now all that needs to be done is to post the notification from anywhere. This technique is particularly useful if the reason that the launch sequence is taking a long time has nothing to do with code that was implemented in the App Delegate.

    [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter]
          postNotificationName: @"RemoveSplashScreen"
          object: nil];

This technique can be employed from anywhere within the application. Removing the observer after the fact may avoid crashes if there is an opportunity for this notification to be fired multiple times. Releasing an object when no object it there to be released can lead to troublesome crashes to track down. The quick and dirty is to use the delay on the performSelector call.

Conclusion

And there it is, a splash screen that conforms to Apple’s guidelines. No hidden APIs, no hacks, no special sauce. A simple, straight forward approach to making the initial interaction with the user as pleasant as possible.

References:

• iPhone OS Reference Library UIApplication Class Reference UIStatusBarStyle
• iPhone OS Reference Library iPhone Development Guide Capturing Screen Shots
• Mac OS X Reference Library Threading Programming Guide Cocoa Perform Selector Sources
• Mac OS X Reference Library NSNotificationsCenter Class Reference

An overwhelming feeling of “Jamais Vu” is how I would best describe the experience of re-entering both the mobile as well as the development scenes since the advent of Apple’s iPhone SDK.  Ground breaking new technology, ever-expanding features and capabilities in each new SDK.  Innovative and hip company in Silicon Valley calling all the shots. And like a moth to a flame I just have to be there no matter what. Writing about it, speaking about it, teaching, mentoring, and building solutions with it.

That was me in a nutshell back in 1997 when Java took off and Borland was the hip company in Silicon Valley (actually Scott’s Valley, on the other side of the mountain, but close enough) that I could not help but fall in love with.  Everything then feels like everything now, and is best described in Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm.

I may have cut my teeth on a Commodore in grade school, but Apple has been the dominate computing platform throughout my education.  Upon entering the corporate world, it was all Mainframe, Unix, Microsoft and even OS/2.  Then with Java and the JBuilder IDE from Borland, I slowly started to re-enter the Apple platform professionally.  I now live in a completely Mac household, work day in and day out solely on Macs, developing applications for the iPhone and other mobile platforms.

At home, I fancy myself an amateur photographer with a decent array of prosumer Canon products.  I take on average 25K photos annually and spend a good amount of time organizing, printing and getting creative with the image library I have managed to create.  The subjects in the majority of the photos I take are my two children, who are also growing up Mac.  My now six-year-old received her first iMac at the age of three, and my two-year old is perfectly at home watching his favorite YouTube videos of trains and race cars on either the iPhone or iPad.

So what has changed?  Why are things different now compared to then?  I wish I knew exactly, it just feels very different somehow.  Hopefully blogging about it will help me figure it out.