A new build of Word on the Street for iPhone is available for testing now.
Some new features: integration with Tweetie, maps, and email. And you can now rate other people’s stuff.
More about this and how to get it here.
Archive for May, 2009
New build of Word on the Street available
Wednesday, May 20th, 2009ibetatest.com
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009ibetatest.com is working very well for me for getting beta testers for my iPhone app. After just a day on there, I have lined up more testers than I have in the previous month from blogging and twitter. Some very high quality feedback, too. Recommended, if you’re developing an app and need testers.
Another tip I’ve discovered is that if you have built and signed your app with an existing provisioning file, you can simply go on the ADC site and add new devices to that provisioning file, as long as you use ‘edit’ on the ADC site (i.e. modify the existing mobileprovision, don’t create a new mobileprovision). There is no need to do a new build. This makes provisioning new users an awful lot easier, as you just need to upload or distribute a new mobileprovision, the old app file should still work.
(I always did wonder why Apple has an embedded mobileprovision file, and a second mobileprovision file distributed out of band (aside from making it as painful as possible to distribute apps by any other means than the app store and itunes). Clearly the device IDs encoded in the embedded mobileprovision file are just ignored. One of many stupid kludges in Apple’s signing process.)
Sponsor us!
Saturday, May 16th, 2009A reminder, I’m doing a cycle from London to Amsterdam in aid of MND research next weekend.
Many thanks to all those who have sponsored so far.
And if you would like to sponsor us, but haven’t yet, there is still time :-) http://justgiving.com/fodmnd09
Open Source Security Standards
Saturday, May 16th, 2009I have resurrected the old Little cat Z open source security standards. If you’re looking for Oracle standards, Application Service Provider standards, Generic Standards, EU Data Protection Standards or NT4 standards (is anyone still using this??), they’re here.
I’ve got some ideas for extending and building on these when I get time, so watch this space.
Macs Don’t “Just Work”
Wednesday, May 13th, 2009I wonder how long can Apple get away with ads like this one, with their “Just Works” slogan.
I’m a Mac fan, but they don’t “Just Work”. The hardware is beautifully engineered, with some lovely touches (that magnetic power cable has saved my laptop from being kicked across the room several times, and Macs are so quiet). Yes, the software looks nice. But it is pretty much as buggy as any other complicated piece of software. Sure, it works better than Windows Vista, but that’s like saying that compared to Zimbabwe or post world war 1 Germany, the economy is in pretty good shape right now.
Off the top of my head, here are just some examples of my Macs not “Just Working” that I’ve run into recently:
- MobileMe. If this just works, where’s my email? Mr Jobs, your pants are on fire.
- Apple wireless keyboard? Looks great. Works great. Apart the constant messages about ‘connection lost’ shortly before it stops working and in order to fix it you have to fetch a USB keyboard or screen share from somewhere else.
- Got a mighty mouse with one of those nifty scroll balls? It doesn’t work, does it? If it does, you just bought it – wait a while.
- Is your iTunes library on a network drive over wifi? If so, pull up a seat and admire the spinning beachball. You can also synch your ipod shuffle or iphone if you have a half hour to spare and you don’t need to catch a train.
- Time Machine and Time Capsule? Great interface. It’ll be nice when it works.
- Airtunes? That’ll be nice when it works, too.
- I can share my airport with another computer wired into ethernet? Cool. When will it work though?
- iPhone remote? If randomly flipping between airtunes speaker settings counts as “Just Works”, then yes.
- Bought a second Mac? Did you know you can transfer all your settings and software from your old Mac? That works great. Unless of course you weren’t actually planning to throw away your old Mac.
- Apple TV over wifi? That’s nice when it works. It’d be nicer if it worked all the time.
- Filevault? Doesn’t work. Breaks time machine.
- I have a USB Canon Scanner. On a Mac, it doesn’t “Just Work”. It doesn’t even work with a bit of effort. It won’t work at all. It worked with Windows, though.
As for the claims about Macs not suffering from viruses and security issues etc, that won’t last long.
There is no particular technical reason why a virus would not affect a Mac, once somebody cares enough to create one. For example the browser is as riddled with security holes as any browser, and those holes are generally easier to exploit than a comparable hole on Windows.
It reminds me of Netscape and Oracle years ago and their claims to have “bullet proof” security. No, they didn’t. And nor does your Mac.
