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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Analyst Shaw Wu with Kaufman Bros. says that while Apple is likely taking a hit by giving away free cases and bumpers to iPhone 4 buyers (and the company is even extending the offer after the deadline to anyone who calls AppleCare), the program will likely be a win in the long run. Obviously customers appreciate getting a free case (and a “fix” for the “antennagate” issue), but Wu says that even shareholders will benefit. Apple has set aside $175 million for the case program, which sounds like a lot, but it’s a drop in Apple’s $45.8 billion cash bucket, and a fix for the issue may eventually add as much as 45 cents to Apple’s share price this year. In other words, the free cases are money well spent, according to Wu.

So it looks like Apple got out of its reception issue cheap. Doesn’t hurt, says Wu, that it wasn’t a huge issue in the first place: supposedly, not many users actually had the reception issue that got such press. I’m not entirely sure that’s true — since I bought my iPhone 4, I have experienced the antenna problem multiple times. But because voice calls are such a small part of the experience for me (most of what I do on the iPhone 4 is with apps and messaging), it hasn’t really hurt my enjoyment of the device overall. And I’m guessing that’s where most customers lie — the antenna problem is an issue for them, but not necessarily a deal-breaker.

TUAWAnalyst: Apple’s Bumper case program a win-win for customers and shareholders originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, a major textbook company, has launched a year long pilot project with the HMH Fuse: Holt McDougal Algebra 1 full year algebra course on an iPad. The course mirrors all the content of the Holt McDougal Larson Algebra 1 2011 textbook currently being used in many schools.

The pilot project includes 400 eighth grade students in the San Francisco, Long Beach, Riverside and Fresno, California school districts. One group is using the HMH Fuse app and a control group is using the standard text. As far as we know, this is the first time a full year subject matter course has been rolled out as an app. The study will be conducted by Empirical Educations Inc. an independent testing group, and will measure differences and similarities in areas of achievement and attitudes about learning. They also want to learn about how and if the students use the app the way it was intended.

Each teacher in the pilot project will teach one random class section using the app and another using the book, which may help account for differences in teaching style and his or her influence over the class. According to the testing agency, the study will eventually roll-out to 1200 students with test reports due in the Fall of 2011 and hopefully be available to all California school districts in January, 2011.

TUAWHMH Fuse: California tests a full year Algebra course on an iPad app originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has published profiles of 4 large businesses that use iPads in their daily functioning. The first, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, explains how their staff has replaced older tools with the iPad. “I don’t carry a calculator. I used to subscribe to all the journals: the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times. That’s all disappeared. It’s all on iPad.”

Additionally, guests who check into Hyatt’s Andaz brand hotels are greeted with iPad-wielding staff who let them swipe a credit card, check in and receive a card key that was encoded by the iPad itself. Since the iPad is so portable, there’s no need for guests to stand in line at the desk.

Also featured is RehabCare, a St. Louis-based medical rehab facility. They’ve eliminated a lot of paper from their process by introducing the iPad, using it to enter patient data, track records and more.

There are two other businesses featured, and each has an accompanying overview video. It’s good to see Apple pushing the iPad to the enterprise market.

TUAWApple profiles iPads used in big business originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rene Ritchie at TiPb recently noticed that Apple’s new Game Center seems to be capped at 500 friends, which another user was able to confirm.

After receiving 500 friend requests*, Rene noticed they stopped coming in. He figured that was the end until he saw a tweet from fellow Game Center user MuscleNerd:

“So much for my not-so-secret plan to break GameCenter! They’re capping my friend count at 500 (as soon as I delete 1, I get 1 new request).”

After some testing, Rene confirmed the same thing. As soon as one request was deleted, another popped up. So, if you’ve got a lot of requests waiting beyond 500, you won’t see them. As Rene correctly points out, most people won’t have this problem as 500 is a heck of a lot of friends. Still, it’s something to keep in mind lest would-be friend number 502 thinks he’s being ignored.

*I know 9 people. Including my children.

TUAWIs Game Center limited to 500 friends? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TechCrunch reports that Apple is cracking down on “app name squatters,” developers who create an app and reserve a name on the App Store, but don’t actually upload files to release and sell the app. Apparently this is an issue — personally, I can’t immediately think of any names that I’d need to have on the App Store (maybe it’s something really generic, like iReader?), but there are supposedly a few developers who have a certain name in mind, but can’t use it because a squatter has locked it up in iTunes Connect. In fact, our own Victor Agreda foresaw this problem a while back, and now it’s popped up on Apple’s radar.

There’s good news, though. Apple will now send out a warning after 90 days of locking up a name with no actual files uploaded, and then 30 days later will delete the record on the App Store. And notices are going out; developers who’ve sat on a name for more than 90 days already are getting their 30 days’ notice now.

If that app you’re planning to put out there has taken a little longer than expected to go through the final coding process, you might want to get on it. But Apple doesn’t say that it will actually check. While the app will need to meet all of the other guidelines (including the rules for minimum functionality), you could probably still release a small app under the name you want, and then upgrade and release the full version later on. We’ll have to see what happens with devs who really want to reserve App Store names in the future.

[via AppleInsider]

TUAWApple warns App Store name squatters originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This will be the shortest Daily App post I’ve ever had to write. LucasArts has inexplicably put the iPhone version of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Special Edition on sale for just US 99 cents. Go buy it. You’re welcome.

Oh, you need more? This is one of the most beloved LucasArts adventure games of all time, and it’s actually two games in one. They redrew and recorded all new voices and audio just for this edition, and you can switch between the old and the new games at any time. It’s got a new control scheme, or you can point and click your way around the old control scheme. It’s hilarious, beautiful, still original, and just plain captivating.

Oh, and it’s usually $7.99 (in fact, the iPad version is still priced at $9.99, even during this sale). Just go buy this game right now! This is a crazy bargain for iPhone gamers, and you should consider yourself lucky to have it.

TUAWTUAW’s Daily App: Monkey Island 2 Special Edition originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Windows Live Messenger for iPhone and iPod Touch has been updated to version 1.1 with iOS 4 support and Facebook chat among other new features. Complete changelog in Windows Live Messenger 1.1 after the jump…

New In Windows Live Messenger 1.1

• iOS 4 fast-switching
• Facebook chat
  Connect your account at http://profile.live.com/Services (Available in US, UK, France, Germany, Brazil, and Russia)
• Friends list filters
• Hide off-line contacts in Settings
• Faster access to change status & sign-out
• Support for 31 languages

You can download Windows Live Messenger from the App Store for free. [iTunes Link]

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Just over a year ago I posted about some beginning iPhone developer books, and things have changed dramatically since.  Since I get e-mails about that old post and whether or not those books are still relevant for learning Objective-C/Cocoa Touch I felt I should update since with so many more choices my perspective has dramatically changed.  At that time there were just a few books on the market.  Now there seems to be dozens of books targeting beginning iOS developers.  Searching for iPhone development in books on Amazon.com currently yields 200 results.

As time has gone on publishers seem to be trying to one up each other, and the material just gets better and better.  I’ve also added a review section where users can submit ratings for various books, that area is fairly new and I haven’t had much time to work on it, but it will be extended in the future.  Here’s a breakdown including some of the more recent books for learning iPhone development using Objective-C/Cocoa Touch.

These are the 3 books that stand out:

1) Big Nerd Ranch: iPhone Programming Guide – This book overall is probably the beginner book that will appeal to the widest range of people.  It is extremely well written, deep and covers an extremely wide range of topics.  You certainly can’t go wrong with this one.  The Big Nerd Ranch is known for quality instruction.  (More in-depth review here)

2) iPhone For Programmers: An App-Driven Approach – This is a by example type book which I love.  If you like learning directly in code you will probably like this book.  Some people hate to learn this way and prefer a deeper more theoretical learning experience those people will like the Big Nerd Ranch book better.  This book is also a very quick read for a programming book which is something that I also like.  (More in-depth review here)

3) How To Make An iPhone App – This book is for absolute beginners looking to get their feet wet.   This book was created to be accessible for anyone even if they had not programmed before and covers learning Objective-C.  It does not cover anything with extreme depth, but rather gets you started teaching you need to know material in a very straightforward manner.  Only available as an eBook. (More in-depth review here)

Conclusion

I’d say that if you have some programming knowledge the Big Nerd Ranch book is the kind of book that most programmers love, and I think it’s a great book.  I like to learn more through code and so I personally would prefer the Deitel book.  If you’re starting at the absolute beginning How To Make An iPhone App covers learning Objective-C in addition to Cocoa touch and is very straightforward.

©2010 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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OAuth authentication is commonly used by web services around the internet, including Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook.  Unfortunately it can be somewhat of a pain to code and on the iPhone and iPad some of the solutions end up being somewhat awkward.

I’ve mentioned some useful goodies from Google for iOS developers in the past, and now Google has created a new library that allows easy Oauth authentication and can be used in all your iOS apps.

What I really like about this library is how easy it is to use, with just a few lines of code you can implement it into your app, and it does everything including popping up a webview so your users can sign in.

You can see a tutorial with sample usage code on the Google Mac Blog here:
Oauth Sign-In Controllers For iOS Apps

You can find the project on Google code here:
http://code.google.com/p/gtm-oauth/

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©2010 iPhone, iOS 4, iPad SDK Development Tutorial and Programming Tips. All Rights Reserved.

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