nik fletcher - collated http://www.nikfletcher.com/collation.php A feed of all Nik Fletcher\'s posts, right across the tubes. en-gb gruber: McCain can still remember the good old days when women couldn't vote. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/52624796 http://nikf.org/post/52624796 gruber: McCain can still remember the good old days when women couldn't vote. "Adobe hasn’t commented on how well that version runs, but if Flash’s persistently..." rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/52497799 http://nikf.org/post/52497799 “Adobe hasn’t commented on how well that version runs, but if Flash’s persistently dreadful performance on Mac OS X is any indication, my personal money is on a performance rating of “Martha, get mah shotgun.” But hey, at least Adobe is ready with a proprietary Internet technology for a (admittedly proprietary) device that focuses on web standards.”

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Adobe begs Apple to allow Flash on iPhone, again
 fraserspeirs: Writing a review of Twitterrific touch, perhaps I shouldn't say "the larger view makes it easy to read tweets while driving". rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/52435412 http://nikf.org/post/52435412 fraserspeirs: Writing a review of Twitterrific touch, perhaps I shouldn't say "the larger view makes it easy to read tweets while driving". "I remember when ‘user generated content’ was just called ‘making crap.’" rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/52435352 http://nikf.org/post/52435352 “I remember when ‘user generated content’ was just called ‘making crap.’”

- Blankbaby: Internet Curmudgeon AndruEdwards: Retweet: Palin could have prevented this mess. She is a financial expert as she can see the local bank branch from her porch. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/52337081 http://nikf.org/post/52337081 AndruEdwards: Retweet: Palin could have prevented this mess. She is a financial expert as she can see the local bank branch from her porch. gedblog » Blog Archive » Let’s Play Palin VP Bingo! rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/52287711 http://nikf.org/post/52287711 gedblog » Blog Archive » Let’s Play Palin VP Bingo! chartier: I love how Arrington confuses "everyone" with "no one" when citing exactly who is talking about iPhone lighter apps. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/51877627 http://nikf.org/post/51877627 chartier: I love how Arrington confuses "everyone" with "no one" when citing exactly who is talking about iPhone lighter apps. detritus.: my presidential candidate can beat up george... rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/51780876 http://nikf.org/post/51780876

detritus.: my presidential candidate can beat up george bush’s presidential candidate atl: @nikf I'm an audio guy, and the only thing more invasive than web audio that I can think of is a rectal exam. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/51737740 http://nikf.org/post/51737740 atl: @nikf I'm an audio guy, and the only thing more invasive than web audio that I can think of is a rectal exam. "Shipley is hardly delighted about Apple’s rules on rejection, which it seems to have..." rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/51672819 http://nikf.org/post/51672819 “Shipley is hardly delighted about Apple’s rules on rejection, which it seems to have discovered down the back of a sofa in Cupertino during a latte break from approving 4,000 different iPhone apps that let you use it as a torch.”

- Charles Arthur: Things are rosy in Apple’s walled garden - for some | Technology | The Guardian chartier: Dear Apple: You did good with iPhone 2.1. Now please stop fucking up the rest of the system by being mysteriously anti-competitive. Kthx. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/51255423 http://nikf.org/post/51255423 chartier: Dear Apple: You did good with iPhone 2.1. Now please stop fucking up the rest of the system by being mysteriously anti-competitive. Kthx. KuraFire: JUST IN: Microsoft announces it will bail out the economy by overspending on advertisement to create more jobs. Plans to start 2 weeks ago. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/50767454 http://nikf.org/post/50767454 KuraFire: JUST IN: Microsoft announces it will bail out the economy by overspending on advertisement to create more jobs. Plans to start 2 weeks ago. KuraFire: "The Constitution": Obama: noted scholar+lecturer on constitutional law. Bush: Might be able to spell it. McCain: there when it was written. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/50761452 http://nikf.org/post/50761452 KuraFire: "The Constitution": Obama: noted scholar+lecturer on constitutional law. Bush: Might be able to spell it. McCain: there when it was written. yabdab: I have an idea for a new porn based Twitter client. it is called ShowMeYourTwitties.com rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/50443563 http://nikf.org/post/50443563 yabdab: I have an idea for a new porn based Twitter client. it is called ShowMeYourTwitties.com Coudal: Best Palin nickname yet: Caribou Barbie rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/50295647 http://nikf.org/post/50295647 Coudal: Best Palin nickname yet: Caribou Barbie fraserspeirs: Pretty sure that twitter.grader.com is the only place @downingstreet gets a grade of 99/100 for anything. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/50154678 http://nikf.org/post/50154678 fraserspeirs: Pretty sure that twitter.grader.com is the only place @downingstreet gets a grade of 99/100 for anything. fraserspeirs: Thought: what kind of software do you get when companies can't expect ROI? Linux software. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/50121606 http://nikf.org/post/50121606 fraserspeirs: Thought: what kind of software do you get when companies can't expect ROI? Linux software. fraserspeirs: I can pretty much correlate the nosedive in comment quality to the hour and minute my latest post showed up on Reddit. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/50103944 http://nikf.org/post/50103944 fraserspeirs: I can pretty much correlate the nosedive in comment quality to the hour and minute my latest post showed up on Reddit. hodgman: Apparently, some bloggers are angry because Obama is not running his campaign in the style of an angry blogger. rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/49981920 http://nikf.org/post/49981920 hodgman: Apparently, some bloggers are angry because Obama is not running his campaign in the style of an angry blogger. "If this is truly Apple’s policy, it’s a disaster for the platform. And if it’s not Apple’s policy,..." rss@nikfletcher.com c http://nikf.org/post/49978715 http://nikf.org/post/49978715 “If this is truly Apple’s policy, it’s a disaster for the platform. And if it’s not Apple’s policy, then Podcaster’s exclusion is proof that the approval process is completely broken.”

- Daring Fireball: The App Store’s Exclusionary Policies iPhone App Review: Shazam helps you 'Name that tune' rss@nikfletcher.com c http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/07/13/iphone-app-review-shazam-helps-you-name-that-tune/ http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/07/13/iphone-app-review-shazam-helps-you-name-that-tune/

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ShazamHave you ever heard some music, be it in the background in a shop, or played on the radio and ever wished you knew the track's name? That's the dilemma Shazam sets out to solve.

By launching the application, holding your iPhone to the sound source you want to 'tag' and waiting a few seconds to sample the track, Shazam will tell you what that track is, and present you with links to buy the song using the iPhone's built-in iTunes store, as well as doing a YouTube search for the track to see if there's any related videos you could see.

In our testing here at Download Squad HQ, the application performed very well with all the music we threw at it (classical, jazz, rock and pop) and even when tested in the middle of a busy city-centre street playing music from another iPhone's external speaker, the application still correctly identified our tracks. Best of all, Shazam is a free application from the App Store and available now.

Gallery: Shazam for iPhone

Welcome ScreenShazam in Listening ModeHey Presto!
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 BBC iPlayer 2.0 arrives in beta rss@nikfletcher.com c http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/26/bbc-iplayer-2-0-arrives-in-beta/ http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/26/bbc-iplayer-2-0-arrives-in-beta/

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iPlayer 2
We've covered the BBC iPlayer in great depth here at Download Squad - from its inception to nationwide rollout - and today, the BBC has announced version 2 of the (hugely successful) project. The new-look site has been heavily re-designed, bringing together both Radio and Television shows in a central portal. Personalisation also seems to be the key to the new release, which incidentally runs side-by-side (at least for now) with the previous version. The iPlayer site keeps track of what you last watched, listing up to ten recently-viewed shows and if that weren't enough, a list of 'last night's TV' is available to help you find shows to catch up with. The video playback size also increased from 512 pixels wide to 640 pixels (a jump of 25%) and the BBC has promised a more 'cinematic' feel to pages playing video.

The iPlayer continues to use Flash to stream videos online for seven days after broadcast, and remains available only to UK residents due to the BBC's publicly-funded status - but if you're a UK resident then you can get started with this new beta here.
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 Versions.app - OS X Subversion with Style rss@nikfletcher.com c http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/19/versions-app-os-x-subversion-with-style/ http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/06/19/versions-app-os-x-subversion-with-style/

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One of the fundamental tools for developers is not just their development environment of choice, but also their version control system of choice. The debate over just which version control system is undoubtedly set to rage on for eternity, however one of the more popular systems is Subversion. On the Mac, up until now there's been a number of choices: Terminal (command-line) which is built into the OS and includes Subversion as part of OS X Leopard, svnX - another open-source graphical user interface, or using the built-in Subversion support in Apple's OS X development IDE Xcode.

For some of us here at Download Squad, a fear of the command-line, compounded with a little loathing of the svnX interface made the announcement of Versions.app - over a year ago - more than a little exciting. Promising an elegant and truly OS X interface to work with Subversion, it's taken a long time to come to fruition - however the betas to date do appear to deliver.

After having used Versions on a daily basis since its debut 2 weeks ago, it's certainly showing a great deal of promise - and makes version control far friendlier. As others have noted, the application not only makes working with existing repositories easy, but also has quick links to Subversion web-service Beanstalk, allowing you to easily create a new online repository and add it to Versions.

Pricing for Versions will be set 'when version 1.0 ships', and currently all (free-to-use) betas expire on July 1st.
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 Bookwatch: Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X gets updated rss@nikfletcher.com c http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/25/bookwatch-cocoa-programming-for-mac-os-x-gets-updated/ http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/25/bookwatch-cocoa-programming-for-mac-os-x-gets-updated/

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Way back in December, our Christmas Gift Guide featured our pick of the many OS X-related books out there. One of the recommendations was the (very excellent) Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass - commonly referred to as 'The Bible' in the Mac development community.

At the time the book was a little outdated -- however in the last couple of weeks an updated third edition has been published. New sections feature Objective-C 2.0, Core Data, Garbage Collection, Xcode 3 and Core Animation, meaning this third edition is all ready for many of the new technologies in Mac OS X Leopard.

At just $32 (via Amazon.com), this updated version clearly ought to be on every developer's bookshelf (and aspiring developer's wishlist).
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 Hydra 1.5: HDR and OS X beauty revisited rss@nikfletcher.com c http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/13/hydra-1-5-hdr-and-os-x-beauty-revisited/ http://www.tuaw.com/2008/05/13/hydra-1-5-hdr-and-os-x-beauty-revisited/

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Back in January, the folks from Creaceed released version 1.0 of Hydra -- a Leopard-only, GPU-powered photo application for creating High Dynamic Range photos that competes with the much-renowned Photomatix Pro. Just in time for the Apple Design Awards version 1.5 of Hydra is available. With more tone-mapping options, an image-navigation HUD, RAW importing (should you wish not to convert to 16-bit TIFF before importing), a plethora of Aperture options (more on those in a moment), and many more new features it's certainly a compelling release.

As mentioned before, there's plenty of Aperture integration with this release. As well as being able to import photos from (and export photos to) Aperture, Hydra is now available as an Aperture plugin (beta) - based on the all-new Aperture 2.1 Plugin SDK - that allows you to create HDR photos from within Aperture.

Unlike the cross-platform Photomatix Pro, Hydra's UI is the epitome of OS X slickness -- replicating much of the look and feel of both Aperture and other iLife applications. We'll be taking a look at both Hydra and Photomatix Pro in the near future to see whether Hydra's charms are merely skin deep.

Hydra 1.5 costs $59.95, and is a free update for those we already have a license.
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