Music can greatly enhance any game when used properly.  Great games like great movies use music to accentuate the mood in a scene.  Thing thing about games is that the mood is dynamically changing, one moment things could be sailing smoothly, and in the next in danger of losing a life.

I found an interesting tutorial on how to create multiple tracks with Garage Band for different moods, and how to play those tracks seamlessly with Cocos2D.  Here’s an example of dynamic music in action:

The above video is from the game Wordsurge by Adam Allen creator of the tutorial.

You can find the tutorial here:
Give Your Game Dynamic Background Music

While the code was written using the Cocos2D open source game engine and the included CocosDenshion audio engine the principles can be used anywhere.

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If you’ve done any iOS development – heck maybe even if you’ve just sent out one tweet out expressing an interest in iPhone development then you may have been approached by someone with a “great app idea”.   Unfortunately, most of the time things just don’t pan out.

There are many good opportunities out there, but even more that won’t be worth your time.  I found a good article providing suggestions on how you can avoid wasting your time.  Much of this is going to come across as common sense, but it’s nice to have a checklist of things.

The article is from iPhone developer Richard Hart who has been developing on the iPhone platform for two years, and also teaches iPhone and iPad courses at BCIT in Vancouver, BC Canada.

You can read the whole article which covers things in more detail here:
Manage Your Risk And Don’t Get Taken For A Ride

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There are some interesting API’s within Core Foundation that don’t have too much material written about them.  One of these API’s is Core Text.  By using Core Text along with Core Graphics you can manipulate text in virtually any way you want.

See the image below:

I found this great tutorial that goes into great detail as to how to modify text with Core Graphics and Core Text.  What I really liked about this tutorial was the great detail explaining how things work, and why they were done.

The tutorial is form Ohmu and can be found here:
iPhone Development: Low-level text rendering

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Today we presents collection of best CSS3 and HTML5 tutorials.

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With the recent announcement of Apple’s new, improved Apple TV, there’s been a lot of talk as to whether it will meet consumers’ demands and expectations, not to mention how it will fare following the arrival of Google’s competing TV device.

According to Electronista, Intel CEO Paul Otellini said he felt Steve Jobs was taking a “step backward” by not making the Apple TV more of a computer-like device. He said Google TV would be the “full internet’ coupled with a traditional TV, featuring the complete Chrome browser as well as supporting Flash.

Otellini said he still thought Apple TV and Google TV could co-exist, though, because they appeal to two different audiences. Apple’s device will appeal to his “mom” because it’s “simplistic,” whereas Google’s device will appeal more to those wanting more, like his son. At the recent Apple event, Steve Jobs said that consumers didn’t want their TVs to do everything and that they wanted them to be simple: play Hollywood movies and TV shows.

MacDailyNews has a chuckle with the Intel CEO’s criticisms, pointing out that Apple TV will no longer use Intel’s Pentium M, but instead rely on an ARM-based processor.

Google TV is expected to start shipping in September, very close to when the new Apple TV will ship. It’s sure to be an exciting time seeing how these two devices fare. Let the race begin!

TUAWIntel CEO: ‘Simplistic’ Apple TV is for ‘mom’ originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I used to think that if I ever got hit by a car while out and about (God forbid, of course), the most useful place to find identifying information would be in my wallet. But that’s not really the case any more — as cops are learning these days, the best place in a person’s pockets to learn about them is their iPhone. Not only is the phone full of contact information (and indeed, I’ve included an “ICE” number on every phone I’ve ever had), but it’s got lots of other information about me, including where I’ve been lately, what kinds of things I’ve searched for, and even what apps I’ve used and how often.

Besides the obvious places (in the apps themselves), there’s a lot of information that you as a user don’t have access to — iOS apparently caches both screenshots and text used while multitasking and spellchecking, so even if you don’t actively save information on your iPhone, odds are it’s there anyway.

Before you panic and decide to ditch your iPhone for privacy’s sake, keep in mind that whoever’s trying to get this information needs to have direct access to the iPhone itself — at this point, hackers can’t dive into your phone over the air and steal your secrets (most of them, anyway). But this type of “iPhone forensics” is very useful for cops trying to figure out what anonymous victims have been up to lately.

Thanks, Colin!

TUAWCops hacking iPhones for information originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dear Aunt TUAW,

I wish I could dock my iPhone right into the side or back of a large iPad screen. And then have the iPad run off my phone. That way I could have a large screen when I need it. But when I leave the house for a walk I could take the smaller device (the iPhone) out and carry it in my pocket.

Love and snuggles,

Your nephew Gary

TUAWDear Aunt TUAW: dock my iPhone to my iPad originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Apple first passed out those development restrictions on using third-party platforms to create iOS apps, Unity was one of the third-party services that could have been frozen out (though Flash was obviously in everyone’s minds). The team behind the popular game development environment assured everyone Unity was safe, but according to the rules as stated, the rest of us weren’t so sure.

Now that Apple has officially relaxed that policy, however, Unity’s David Helgason is doing the equivalent of a victory dance on the company’s official blog, saying that Unity respects Apple for “coming to the right conclusion, and in our eyes it’s best to let bygones be bygones!” Yeah, he’s kind of excited.

Not that he’s admitting the rules were make or break for Unity — the company was apparently talking to Apple periodically, and even had a workaround ready to go if Apple ever did crack down on the platform. Helgason also points out that even while things were up in the air, Apple continued to approve and even feature lots of different Unity-created apps, so even while Apple preached against using anything but Xcode to create apps, the app review team allowed and even endorsed the products of third-party development tools.

At any rate, the issue is settled now. Consumers are the real winners here — an end user probably can’t tell the difference (if done correctly) between a third-party app and an Xcode app, so the more options for developers, the better.

TUAWUnity takes a bow on Apple’s third-party development stance originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Remember the DODOcase? It was perhaps the first iPad case that we reviewed, a beautiful handmade Moleskine-like case made with traditional bookbinding methods. The case single-handedly revived the art of bookbinding in San Francisco, and it’s sparked a handful of competitors.

For most of the product’s short life so far, the interior paper in the case has been red. Now the company will be providing a full spectrum of 11 colors (including red) to purchasers. Craig Dalton, co-founder of DODOcase, sent us a bunch of glamor shots of the cases that we’ve collected into a gallery to make you drool.

An interesting note about the bookplate inside the cover of every DODOcase. Dalton noted that “We introduced the bookplate after we realized we couldn’t possibly hand sign every one that went out the door. We signed the first 1000, then moved to a printed library card for another 1000 or so, then moved to the bookplate. We are passionate about the history of book binding and were really jazzed when someone pointed us towards the bookplate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bookplate). I loved the idea of creating something that people could personalize with their name, but also feel like a part of the history of the book.”

If you have a hand-signed DODOcase sheltering your iPad, consider yourself very lucky.

TUAWMmmm… new flavors of DODOcase iPad case are available originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Apple’s recent decision to ease off on its third-party app creation tools restrictions, gamers are in for some very cool and interesting developments. At the Korea Games Conference, Epic Games announced that the Unreal Development Kit (UDK) will have the ability to generate iOS games and other applications.

The UDK is freely available and has the ability to churn out incredible looking environments, such as the Epic Citadel tech demo you might have downloaded or at least gazed upon in wonder.

If the gameplay of the final, released version of the Citadel demo is as smooth and playable as what was shown at the most recent Apple press event, there’s no doubt we’ll see even more amazing things come from what developers can churn out with the UDK. Think someone will port Unreal Tournament?

TUAWUnreal Engine now able to make iOS apps originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Happy (belated) birthday today to Mac OS X — yes, the OS itself actually released to the public on March 24, 2001 (which means its actual “birthday,” in my mind, isn’t until next March), but on September 13, 2000, points out Macworld, Steve gave us the very first peek at the foundation of modern Apple computing at the Apple Expo in Paris. That’s ten years ago yesterday — we never were all that good with remembering birthdays.

Macworld lists out the ten most significant contributions of the OS to the Mac experience, but things like the Time Machine and Spotlight are on there, and of course those weren’t introduced until much later. The OS itself was actually announced six days after the year 2000 started, and the Apple Expo announcement was the beta reveal. Steve Jobs had just come back to the company, bringing his NeXT experience with him, and OS X made waves early on for being a Unix-based operating system. The Aqua user interface was the other big feature of the OS right away — as Jobs said at that first Macworld Expo, “when you saw it you wanted to lick it.” Customers found that out immediately: The beta product itself was released in stores for $29.95.

I’m sure we’ll have more coverage of the past ten years of OS X as we move forward into next March, but it’s pretty amazing to think how far both we and Apple have come over the last ten years already, all the way from OS X to iOS and everywhere in-between.

TUAWMac OS X beta was released ten years ago yesterday originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW bloggers have seen just about every type of material known to man turned into docks for iPods, iPhones, and iPads. This one, however, caught most of us off guard.

The iTree dock is a hollow log that serves as a completely functional iPod / iPhone dock. In fact, the log is hollowed out with a special technique and outfitted with speakers. The makers of this big dock, KMKG Studio, worked with Austrian speaker manufacturer Lenz to make sure that the iTree is not only beautiful, but provides excellent sound quailty. The iTree is actually suspended from the ceiling on thin, transparent line so it appears to float in front of the wall.

If you contract with KMKG to have an iTree constructed, you get to choose what kind of wood and the length of dock you want. I’d personally go for a 30-foot beetle-killed pine log from Colorado, which has a beautiful bluish stain to it, and then play Robert Plant’s “Big Log” repeatedly… but that’s my dream.

[via The Daily What]

TUAWCut down that tree and turn it into an iPod dock originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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