I am pleased to announce the release of something that has long been in the works: a major update to Check Off. Check Off is a quick to-do list that sits in your Mac’s menu bar. Simply click the check mark and your personal to-do list will drop down. This release focuses on modernizing the […]
Archive for August, 2009
- Mac OS X Over The Years ✶
TwistedMac has an excellent visual history of Mac OS X over the years. The Mac OS X Public Beta was what made me decide to switch to the Mac from Windows/Linux. Looking back at it eight years later and I have no idea what I was thinking. Those stripes were unfortunate.
- Innocent Until Proven Guilty ✶
Joe Hewitt on why Apple should eliminate the AppStore review process:
The fact is this: Apple does not have the means to perform thorough quality assurance on any app. This is up to the developer. We have our own product managers and quality assurance testers, and we are liable to our users and the courts if we do anything evil or stupid.
I agree with most everything Joe says, but I am not as against the review process as a policy as he is. My problem with the process is the turnaround time. 14 days to publish any update to our users is ludicrous. Apple needs to ramp up the team behind the review process and cut that time down to 48-72 hours at most.
The extended review time is detrimental to users and developers as it prevents them from getting smaller point releases that may contain useful bug fixes because the lead time just isn’t worth it when a point release is nearby. I have a finalized copy of FitnessTrack 1.5 sitting on my desktop waiting to be submitted. I can’t submit it until Apple accepts 1.1.2 because I will be pushed to the back of the queue if I update the binary and because iTunes Connect does not allow you to modify the build number if you do reject and replace a binary.
By comparison, there was an issue in the Check Off 4.0 binary yesterday. I found it, resolved it and pushed the update to my users within 3 hours. That is how software updates in the Internet age are supposed to work.
- Programming with C Blocks on Apple Devices ✶
Joachim Bengtsson has created a great HOWTO guide for using blocks in Objective-C. (via Jonathan Wight)
- KVO+Blocks: Block Callbacks for Cocoa Observers ✶
Andy Matuschak:
KVO+Blocks is an NSObject category I wrote which provides addObserverForKeyPath:task:, where the latter parameter is a block.
I am just starting to wrap my head around blocks in Objective-C, but I am pretty confident that I am not going to to ever want to write code without it again once it fully clicks.
Blogging Is Back
I have been thinking a lot about my online presence over the past few weeks. I am always quick to jump on board and try the latest beta services and have embraced quite a few longterm including Twitter, Tumblr and Flickr. When I saw the demise of tr.im and the acquisition of FriendFeed by Facebook, […]
Hi. I'm Justin Williams and this is my weblog. I am the crew chief of Second Gear, a purveyor of fine Macintosh and iPhone software.
You can learn more about me or view my résumé
In addition to this site I am frequently posting thoughts on Twitter, photos on Flickr and everything else to Tumblr.
Products
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Check Off
Mac OS X To Do List.
