Perian has been a steadfast friend on my computer for years. With Perian, nearly any video format I throw at QuickTime simply works. Perian has been a wonder. It supports AVI. It supports DivX. It supports MKV.
It's been one of the best and most useful tools I have had access to and invariably the first thing I reinstall after any upgrade.
Today, the Perian dev team announced that the software will no longer be updated. They will release all the source code to Google Code or Github, but the team is moving on.
We here at TUAW give them a well-deserved round of applause for the excellence of their effort, and their contribution to the OS X community. Perian will be missed. Thank you to Chris "Growl" Forsythe, Graham "Adium and Fire" Booker, Alexander "ffmpeg" Strange, and Augie "mecurial" Fackler, as well as everyone else who contributed in the past.
For now, Perian continues to work with OS X Lion. From here, however, it's unsure whether it will make the leap to Mountain Lion. Check out NicePlayer, which remains in development.
Are you one of the many devs who miss Xcode's "Fix and Continue" feature? Apple removed "Fix and Continue" in Xcode 4. This option allowed you to patch your binary with updated code, as you ran and debugged it.
Well, there's good news. Developer John Holdsworth has released Injection for Xcode. It's an OS X application that lets you inject those same code changes into running applications for development and debugging. It works with both OS X and iOS apps, including those running on devices.
It works by allowing your classes to be recompiled selectively as class categories. These are loaded at run time via bundles, and override your originally compiled code. So you can modify, enhance, and adapt your code during run time and tweak elements on the go.
Holdsworth has been working with this feature for quite a long time. He writes:
In London there were two banks which embraced NeXT for developing front office trading systems in an age before even windows 3.1. The hardware was only just up to it however and build times where at three quarters of an hour so we started using this means of patching the app using bundles rather having to relink the whole thing.
I asked him to fill in some of his background about working with Apple and NeXT technology. He responded:
I first encountered NeXT in 1989 at IRCAM the computer/music research institute in Paris where I fell in love with Objective-C. It's great to see things coming full circle with all this memory managed stuff, and C++, such a half baked language falling away.
How ironic that it should be a mobile device which paved the way. If you ask me the closest we've been to Object-Oriented Nirvana is Smalltalk, and Objective-C is pretty close to that.
Steve visited one day spinning the reality distortion field about the new "autorelease" mechanism. Quite the mystic.
My only other claim to fame was when the Apple purchase of NeXT came through I sent him an email enthusing greatly and got a reply saying "Thanks John, a Merry Christmas to you and your family."
Been a disciple ever since. Shame I didn't buy the stock.
Unfortunately, Apple has been a bit squirrelly about letting Injection into the OS. Holdsworth first hoped to start selling Injection on the Mac App Store back in February. Apple has been sitting on the app for months, failing to give it a thumbs up or down.
Do you want to help out? Drop Apple a note at appreview@apple.com and ask them to expedite approval on Injection for Xcode (App number #id498448895).
Until then, Injection for Xcode is available on Holdsworth's personal site. It offers a two-week trial period and costs US$9.99 (individual license) or $25.00 (corporate) after that. Licenses are issued per-machine.
To purchase, the app guides you through PayPal (via a web view) after the trial period.
Are you one of the many devs who miss Xcode's "Fix and Continue" feature? Apple removed "Fix and Continue" in Xcode 4. This option allowed you to patch your binary with updated code, as you ran and debugged it.
Well, there's good news. Developer John Holdsworth has released Injection for Xcode. It's an OS X application that lets you inject those same code changes into running applications for development and debugging. It works with both OS X and iOS apps, including those running on devices.
It works by allowing your classes to be recompiled selectively as class categories. These are loaded at run time via bundles, and override your originally compiled code. So you can modify, enhance, and adapt your code during run time and tweak elements on the go.
Holdsworth has been working with this feature for quite a long time. He writes:
In London there were two banks which embraced NeXT for developing front office trading systems in an age before even windows 3.1. The hardware was only just up to it however and build times where at three quarters of an hour so we started using this means of patching the app using bundles rather having to relink the whole thing.
I asked him to fill in some of his background about working with Apple and NeXT technology. He responded:
I first encountered NeXT in 1989 at IRCAM the computer/music research institute in Paris where I fell in love with Objective-C. It's great to see things coming full circle with all this memory managed stuff, and C++, such a half baked language falling away.
How ironic that it should be a mobile device which paved the way. If you ask me the closest we've been to Object-Oriented Nirvana is Smalltalk, and Objective-C is pretty close to that.
Steve visited one day spinning the reality distortion field about the new "autorelease" mechanism. Quite the mystic.
My only other claim to fame was when the Apple purchase of NeXT came through I sent him an email enthusing greatly and got a reply saying "Thanks John, a Merry Christmas to you and your family."
Been a disciple ever since. Shame I didn't buy the stock.
Unfortunately, Apple has been a bit squirrelly about letting Injection into the OS. Holdsworth first hoped to start selling Injection on the Mac App Store back in February. Apple has been sitting on the app for months, failing to give it a thumbs up or down.
Do you want to help out? Drop Apple a note at appreview@apple.com and ask them to expedite approval on Injection for Xcode (App number #id498448895).
Until then, Injection for Xcode is available on Holdsworth's personal site. It offers a two-week trial period and costs US$9.99 (individual license) or $25.00 (corporate) after that. Licenses are issued per-machine.
To purchase, the app guides you through PayPal (via a web view) after the trial period.
TUAW Dev Juice talks with Mac developer Lyle Andrews, who agreed to discuss his real-world experience launching applications. He'll be sharing tips and hints about practical app promotion skills.
I want to thank you for taking the time to talk to me and to TUAW readers. The reason I asked you here was because I think you have a really compelling story to tell and tips to share. You're a small developer who's achieved some exciting success in Apple's App Stores, yes? Can you tell us about your background and your products?
Yes, I've been coding since I was 12, have been through 14 languages, have a degree in philosophy, and am a veteran of the dot.com wars where I ran over 60 projects including a dot.com startup and a Fortune 500 web deployment. My project history can be seen here.
I've been moving into consumer software development and have two large projects in the works, Ynnis Myrddin, an interactive film about Merlin, and MetaView, a 3D market vizualizer.
When the Mac App Store started operations I decided to write a few small apps to learn its dynamics: Tempest - a video lightning screensaver, Fireworks HD, another screensaver, and Network Logger, an active network monitor. Network Logger is currently selling in the top 6%, Fireworks HD in the top 2.5% and Tempest! in the top 2% of their categories on the US store.
I first came across your work when I reviewed your Fireworks app just before New Years. Can you share how that process of pitching and reviewing worked from your end and talk about how the TUAW review affected your sales?
Getting Fireworks HD reviewed by Apple was straightforward compared to getting the first screensaver on the store, since the App Store doesn't sell screensavers directly. I tried numerous ways around this restriction, including zipping up the saver and storing it in a shell app's bundle or having the app download the saver.
After half a dozen rejection cycles one of the Apple reviewers took pity on me and suggested adding a download link that the user could click on in the app. This puts the onus of responsibility on the user, gives them control, and with that approach I was able to get approved and onto the store.
Being very much a developer I have the classic indie tendency to just keep coding and sit around wishing that someone was promoting my apps full time. This does make the exposure the App Store affords very attractive. I do occasionally send out press releases and hold free promotions on the store.
For Fireworks HD, I knew getting some exposure for New Year's Eve was important so I emailed an editor at TUAW about the possibility of a review right after Christmas. I saw that as a win/win since that was the app on the store most appropriate for New Years' Eve at the time. Fireworks HD was named Mac App of the Day on Dec 27, 2011 and the sales rank responded immediately and dramatically, moving from around rank #100 up to #4 in Top Paid Entertainment within a day.
On New Year's Eve itself Fireworks HD was on the Top 10 Entertainment charts of 13 countries. Over the next few weeks Fireworks HD trended down as expected but happily ended in a higher average range which has persisted for five months to date.
Can you tell me about some of the strategies you've used in-store for helping your apps stand out from the competition? I know you mentioned something about icons when I first started talking to you about doing this interview. What other suggestions do you have?
I anticipated your question, so here is a very long list of suggestions.
Pop out. Your icon has to pop out. Look at the primary category you will be listed in, imagine you are in the top 200, what similarities or appearance trends can you find in the app icons, and how can you break them in a way that draws attention and invites a click. A number of people have told me that they clicked on Network Logger just because of the icon. Something about it just makes you want to click it whatever it leads to.
Keep it short. This indicates that you are confident that the customer is going to like your product if they are interested in general. It shows you feel like you don't have to say that much to make the sale. This is true with new clients as well as products.
A long description starts to feel like an apology after awhile. However, some things are complex and merit a longer description. Conciseness is the actual metric. How can you say the most with the least words?
Keep it Plain. Plain descriptions with minimal self-praise and adjectives are trusted more by App Store customers than overinflated rhetoric.
Focus on Strength. Best in class in some way? Definitely say so. If nothing is the best, should you be aiming higher? This is true for Fireworks HD, it is in some ways a silly app I built to test out the store, but if you need beautiful 100% realistic HD fireworks for your event that don't repeat in sequence and work when no network connection is available, there is nothing better available for Mac than Fireworks HD.
Be a master of the obvious. While there are many great naming strategies, if you can name a product after its product category, you have a home field advantage. With "Network Logger" for instance, the genus is instantly obvious, the customer just needs to know the species. They click, they are coming to see you, you are the category, the sale is yours to lose.
Don't sweat bad reviews. They are going to happen, if an app has merit it will tend to sell anyway and time will equalize things. Tempest has been in the top 10 in Spain in Paid Entertainment for many weeks despite having only two reviews there, both 1 star.
Follow or lead the market, either way know which you are doing. Leading the market is much more challenging, and can be much more rewarding. Can you come up with a way of systematizing a part of the raw unordered universe and create a new class of human activities? If you succeed your glories will be sung in Valhalla. Following the market can be safer and is often more lucrative. Can you rethink a better way to handle a common human activity?
Use resonance awareness. There are some things you just know are going to resonate with a particular audience, fireworks, lightning, beaches, white rounded kitchen appliances...resonance awareness is really a diverse skill set it pays to hone. We know Steve Jobs actively developed this skill set throughout his life.
Understand need. You need their need. What fundamental emotions are driving the user as they use your software? A desire for order? Curiosity? Love? A desire to conquer? Every activity has a number of emotions that are commonly associated with it. Knowing what your audience is experiencing and wants to experience emotionally is the foundation of an evolving relationship. It's not just woven into the advertising, the product is built around it.
In conclusion, these things are all simple in theory, but if the execution sounds simple, think again. The student sees the simple and thinks it simple, the master sees the simple and thinks it profound. I hope one day to be such a master myself.
There's been a lot of negative talk over the last few years about the App Stores being too saturated, that small guys can't make a living at it, that there's no room to break in. What would you say to that?
I would say that oversaturation is bound to happen given the gold rush mentality, but overall the App Stores have been really empowering to smaller developers and that virtue will be recognized if one persists. The bar is higher now and development and marketing effort have to reflect that.
The App Store gets far more traffic than my own web sites and provides more than just sales exposure; the review system has sort of opened up a dialog between me and my customers that wasn't there before.
There are a lot of nasty reviews on the US App Store but internationally they are much more measured; they all make you tougher (better at taking criticism), and your app better.
Being able to say you have apps on the store also has a certain social cachet these days that's valuable in personal and professional situations and that opens up new opportunities.
Lyle, thank you so much for taking the time to talk today. I'm hoping that your experience and your insights will help inspire other developers, especially those just getting started.
And if you're still reading this post and you like this kind of developer-centric coverage, please let our editorial team know. Drop a note and tell TUAW that you care about dev topics.
It's been a couple of weeks now since I learned that AT&T hated me.
Okay, maybe not personally, but certainly they hate the way I use data.
If you haven't been following along with this story it goes like this. I received a text from AT&T, telling me that my US$5 autorenewal data package was boosted from 10 MB to 50 MB. I rejoiced but my glee was short-lived.
Shortly thereafter, readers tipped me off about the bad news: AT&T was about to cancel my autorenewal, insist that I pay an extra $25/month (at least) for a voice service package I didn't want or need. My current data would no longer roll over, which is why I was paying $5/month to begin with. It wasn't about 10MB, it was about keeping my data balance active.
I'm an iOS developer. I try to have live SIMs around for testing during development on my non-contract devices.
Until April 30th, I could spend $100 per year and have a SIM that provided data and voice for light usage. It was exactly what I needed.
Then AT&T changed its policy.
"Customers on certain GoPhone voice plans ($2/day and the $0.10/min option) need to subscribe to a monthly plan in order to use a data package. (Customers on those two plans can still pay a PPU rate for data, of course...) Qualifying monthly plans are the $50 Unlimited Talk & Text nationwide plan for GoPhone smartphones and the $25 Unlimited Text with 250 minutes nationwide GoPhone plan. "
Translated into English, this means: "Unless you pay another $25 a month for a plan you do not need and will not use, coughing up an additional $300/year, your simple and affordable data-enabled SIM is toast."
Great.
So what am I doing? For now, I'm letting my extra SIMs go dark and I'm using my 4S's data exclusively. Meanwhile, I'm trying to wrap my head around why it's so important for carriers to kill a la carte data. It just doesn't make any sense to me, especially when AT&T continues to offer similar plans (admittedly for $15/month not $5/month) on the iPad.
So did AT&T's policy change hit you? How are you taking it and what do you plan to do in response? Let me know. Share in the comments.
A practical primer on creating your business plan, the book offers advice on topics diverse as protecting your intellectual property and why testing and usability is crucial for app success.
It's an easy read (admittedly a little choppy in the writing at times) but I found it full of valuable advice, especially for anyone who is thinking about entering the App Store ecosystem but hasn't jumped in yet.
You'll find coverage about competitive research and being realistic about what it takes to succeed in App Store. From pricing your app (free or not), monetizing free apps (iAds and other in-app opportunities), to Freemium models (leveraging in-app purchase), a large part of the book centers on understanding how to sell. A final series of chapters covers marketing issues, like creating pre-release buzz and press releases.
If I have any criticism, it's that the authors sometimes went a little too technical (there's actual code in the book and their intro recommends a programming background) for a general business text. The advice here is perfectly valid for people hiring tech personnel, not just one-man dev shops. There's also a bunch of lists that seem to be there to increase the page count rather than offer a practical value to the reader and the ebook table of contents was set up in an odd way (you have to click on page numbers, not section names). Those are minor quibbles.
I wish the authors had spent more time on the strength of the book (creating a business plan) and less on technical implementation details. That said, there's plenty of good, solid advice and you should not be scared away from purchasing this title if you're not a programmer.
[Full disclosure: Steve Sande and I are writing Pitch Perfect, which talks about how to pitch your app for reviews and has some (but not much) topic overlap with this book.]
For whatever reason, many Amazon authors seem to be under the impression that you can only create a proper table of contents for Kindle Direct Publishing on Windows, not the Mac.
Having just uploaded our newest book (Getting Ready for Mountain Lion) to Amazon, Steve Sande and I have invested a lot of time learning the quirks of KDP and its tools, as well as those for iBooks (but more about that in another post). For any of our readers who are also budding authors or publishers, we'll be sharing what we've learned in a TUAW series called "iBook Lessons."
We thought we'd share our KDP Table of Contents strategy with you to help reduce the hair-pulling and frustration associated with document preparation. Here are the steps we use in Microsoft Word 2008 and 2011 to create our TOC.
Create a fresh page and add Table of Contents text line, formatted with your favorite header style.
Move your cursor just to the left of "Table". Choose Insert > Bookmark. Call the bookmark toc and click Add. This creates a bookmark before the title, named in such a way that KDP's automatic conversion tools will recognize it as the start of your Table of Contents. All the Kindle hardware and apps will be able to use it as well.
Generate a temporary TOC, so you have an outline to start working with. Move to under your Table of Contents header to a new line. Choose Insert > Index and Tables > Table of Contents. Uncheck "Show Page Numbers".
Click Options. Choose which heading styles you wish to include. If you use custom styles (e.g. H1 instead of Header 1) make sure to add a level for those as well. Typically, most ebook TOCs use either just H1 or H1 and H2. Your call. Click OK to finish options. Click OK again to generate the contents.
Select the entire TOC, cut it, and paste it into TextEdit to be your guide to the next step.
For each entry in the TOC, locate the start of that section in your manuscript. Set your cursor to the left of each section title. Again, use Insert > Bookmark to create a bookmark at that position. Name each item with a meaningful (and easy-to-recognize) tag.
After bookmarking your entire document, return to the initial Table of Contents section. Paste the text from TextEdit back into your document as simple, unlinked text.
For each item on your list, select the entire line: i.e. every word, not just clicking to the left of the name as you did to set bookmarks. Then choose Insert > Hyperlink (Command-K). Choose the Document tab, and click the Locate button to the right of the Anchor text field. Choose the bookmark you wish to link to, and click OK.
Repeat for the remaining TOC entries.
Once you've finished adding bookmarks and hyperlinks, save your work. Go to KDP and upload the file (you may want to create a testbed skeleton book entry just for this purpose). Download the .mobi file it generates and try it out on the Kindle Mac app and/or any Kindles or iPads/iPhones you have on-hand. Amazon's Kindle Previewer app is also available for download from KDP, and provides simulated views of your ebook on iPhone, iPad, Kindle, Kindle DX, and Kindle Fire.
Always make sure you test each link to ensure that the bookmarks are placed properly. Also test the Table of Contents button in-app and check that it jumps you to the TOC correctly.
Best of luck in your ebook / iBook publishing efforts, and look forward to more tips about publishing here on TUAW.
I've been writing these posts for the last couple of years, usually always before WWDC, as mini roundups of what I, my colleagues, and readers want to see in the next iOS release. However, as releases go on it gets harder and harder to put together lists of major features I'd like to see in the next iOS.
That's because iOS has now become a fairly developed OS capable of doing most of what you'd ever need it to do. I mean, remember when multitasking or copy and paste were the big feature requests? What about improved notifications? Wireless sync? Folders?
All that's been done.
The list I present now features a few big items, but many of the suggestions are small features that would really "tidy up" the OS and make it more usable. That's not to say I don't think iOS won't continue to innovate, but those major innovations and brand new features will most likely be something Apple will surprise us with and not something that many people could have guessed beforehand. This list also doesn't take software features that would require hardware upgrades into account, like a mobile payment system.
So here's the list of what I hope to see in iOS 6. And when you're done reading it, I'd love for you to add your own feature requests to the list in the comments below.
1. Expand Siri's capabilities and open up the Siri API.
This is probably the biggest request on anyone's wish list. When Siri debuted in iOS 5 on the iPhone 4S, it was easily the most touted new feature. However, after the novelty wore off iPhone 4S users quickly divided into two camps: those that do use it and those that don't. I'm one of the guys that do. However, that's not to say there isn't room for major improvements to Siri, or as I call it: the most underdeveloped feature on the iPhone.
Now to be fair to Apple, Siri is still a beta feature, so it's unfair to really judge it as if it has been completed in Apple's final vision. It will continue to evolve over time, and here's what I hope it can do in iOS 6:
Apple needs to expand Siri's capabilities. The easiest way to do this would be to open up Siri's API to third-party developers. Once Apple does this, that's when the power of Siri will really shine. Imagine being able to say "Skype my brother," "Tweet '@TUAW' rocks," "Shazam this song," or "Record my weight in LoseIt."
Those are just some simple examples, of course. If Apple were to open up Siri's API it would be the developers who could really make Siri the killer feature. However, given the server requirements it takes to run Siri queries and the fact that it's still in beta, it's unlikely Apple is going to open Siri to third-parties any time soon. If they don't, I at least hope they'll add more features in-house, including things like asking for local movie times, telling the camera to take a picture "in 10 seconds," and turn by turn directions.
Another thing Apple could do to improve Siri without opening it up to devs is adding the ability to toggle system services, including turning Bluetooth, Wifi, Personal Hotspot, and Airplane mode on or off. Also commands like "Go to TUAW.com" would be nice instead of the current way of navigating to a website via Siri by having to say "search for TUAW" and then clicking on the website in the search results list in Safari.
2. Multiple users (on iPad).
Let me state that multiple users on an iPhone would be ridiculous, but on an iPad I think it makes a lot of sense. Phones are personal, but iPads are shared a lot in homes. It would be great if iOS 6 adds user support to the iPad. After all, it'd be nice to let my niece use my iPad without worrying she'll accidentally delete an important email.
There was a time when multiple users on an iPad wouldn't have made sense from a practical point of view. After all, if each user stored all their photos and videos on the iPad, it could quickly fill up the hard drive. But with iCloud and iTunes Match -- and their no doubt continued expansion -- multiple users are much more feasible as each user could access all of his or her documents and media right from the cloud.
3. Facebook integration.
I use Twitter 10x more than I used to because of its integration with iOS 5. It's so nice to be able to tweet a photo or a web link right from Photos or Safari without having to switch to the Twitter app.
Given that I'm a bigger Facebook user than Twitter user, I hope Apple adds system-wide Facebook sharing to iOS 6. This isn't an original feature request, and it's actually appeared in in-house beta's of iOS before, but never actually included in public releases. The fault here, of course, probably lies with Facebook more than Apple. Apple generally likes to protect their user's information as much as possible while Facebook, well...they want as much as that information as they can get. Until Apple and Facebook can work something out, I'm afraid we won't see system-wide Facebook integration. That's really a shame, more so for Facebook than Apple because, as I've said, iOS 5's Twitter integration has got me using that service a lot more than I ever would have.
4. Auto-hide an empty Newsstand.
I first suggested the idea of a Newsstand-type app years ago before Apple finally introduced it in iOS 5. Magazines are a natural fit for the iPad, after all. However, while Newsstand is welcome by some, for others it's like the houseguest that just won't leave.
The problem with Newsstand is that it takes up a space on your screen even if you don't have a subscription to a periodical. Now I realize why Apple did this: they wanted to encourage people to check out subscriptions. But unlike the iBooks, iTunes, or App Store apps, you don't need the actual Newsstand "app" to search for or buy magazines and newspapers. That's because Newsstand isn't actually an app, much less a store, at all. It's just a glorified folder that holds specific types of apps -- newspapers and magazines. Magazine and newspaper apps can all be found in the Newsstand section of the App Store and could still be found there even without the Newsstand folder (remove iBooks, on the other hand, and you'll have no access to the iBookstore on your iOS device).
What I'm proposing is that the Newsstand folder remains hidden until you download a subscription. As soon as you download even one, its app appears in the Newsstand folder on your homescreen. But when you delete all the subscriptions inside your Newsstand folder, the folder disappears as well.
5. Multitasking gestures for iPhone.
With iOS 5 Apple introduced four- and five-finger gestures on the iPad. Using four or five fingers you can pinch to reveal the homescreen, swipe up to reveal the multitasking bar, or swipe left or right to move between apps. Those gestures made the iPad infinitely more pleasurable and organic to use.
I suggest Apple bring multitasking gestures to the iPhone. Three finger pinch to homescreen; three finger swipe up to reveal multitasking bar; and three finger swipe left or right to switch between apps.
6. Improved Notification Center.
Improved notifications were a big request before iOS 5, and Apple hit it out of the park when they completely revamped notifications with the introduction of Notification Center.
However, as good as Notification Center is, it could still use some improvements. First, it could use more widgets, specifically on the iPad. There's no built-in Weather or Stocks app on the iPad, but it would be nice if Apple would at least give you the option of showing the weather forecast and stock quotes in Notification Center on iPad for unity's sake (see #7). Another nice feature would be a timer widget that shows up in Notification Center so you don't have to tap through to your Clock app to see how much time you have left for that cake to get done cooking in the oven.
A final improvement to Notification Center: clearing notifications takes a couple of awkward taps in a narrow corner of the notification's header. Instead it would be much more intuitive if you could swipe right, then tap a standard big red delete button to remove a notification.
7. Weather, Stocks, and Clock for iPad.
Unity is nice. And iCloud could keep stock quotes, weather locations, and alarms in sync across devices. 'Nuff said.
8. AirDrop for iOS
Pre-iOS 5, many people clamored for a Finder app to store files on the iPhone. Apple's answer was simpler: iCloud. However, while iCloud is a great way to keep your documents in sync across your devices, it doesn't really help when you want to easily share a file with someone else.
Enter AirDrop for iOS. Select a file, select the Share button, tap "AirDrop" to see a list of AirDrop-enabled iPhones, iPads, and Macs in your area, then select the device you want to share with. This would work great for sharing something as simple as a virtual business card or as large as a video or Keynote presentation with other people. Extra points if the AirDrop interface had cool GUI animations where you could just slide a file from one iOS device to the next.
9. Quick access to toggle Bluetooth, WiFi, and 3G on and off.
Yeah, some people toggle their Bluetooth a lot. Right now it takes five steps. Apple could always move the Bluetooth setting to a first-level heading in the Settings app, but if you're a "power toggler" and are constantly turning Bluetooth on and off (or 3G or Wifi) it might be nice to have quick access to these settings in another way. Here are a few ideas how Apple could do it:
Siri -- (as mentioned earlier) "Turn Bluetooth Off." Done.
Swipe the dock to the right -- The dock in iOS doesn't do anything when you swipe over it. Apple could easily enable left or right swiping of the dock to reveal quick-access toggle buttons for wireless services behind in.
Swipe up at the bottom of any screen -- Just like you can swipe down from the top of any screen to reveal Notification Center, Apple could enable up-swiping from the bottom of any screen to quickly reveal wireless service toggle buttons.
Add Bluetooth to the multitasking bar -- This of course is the most obvious answer. Just like you can adjust the volume or screen rotation lock from the multitasking bar, Apple could easily add a Bluetooth toggle button there too.
10. Universal passcode locks for apps.
Right now it's up to the developer to include a passcode lock option for an app. It would be nice if Apple could add a Passcode Lock Center in Settings where you could choose to set not only a passcode for your iPhone or iPad, but also apply the same or different passcode to any app of your choice on your device. More security is always nice.
11. Multiple signatures in Mail.
Sometimes you want to send emails with different signatures. Right now iOS only lets you have one signature -- and it's either attached to every email or it's not. Give us multiple signature options, including the ability to include or exclude signatures right within each email composition window.
12. Safari Top Sites.
This isn't so much a feature I'd like to see on the iPhone, but I think it would rock on the iPad. This is also a holdover from my last iOS wishlist. Ever since Apple introduced Top Sites for desktop Safari, I've used them as my primary way of getting to my favorite sites. I love how they give me a graphical representation of when a site has new content on it, and it's much better for the layperson than updates through RSS feeds. Enabling Top Sites in mobile Safari would make it much easier for users to navigate to their favorite sites and know when those sites have new content (something web clip icons can't do either).
13. Ability to select default mail, calendar, and Twitter clents.
Yeah, this is a long shot, but I'm adding it to the list because so many people have requested it. Do I see this ever happening? Nope.
14. Styled Text APIs.
This is also another holdout from a previous wishlist and it's something I hope Apple implements this time around, again, for developers' sakes. While there are many great word processors available for iOS, Pages on the iPad is still the best. Why? Because it's got an incredibly rich set of styled text features. Apple hasn't made the styled text APIs used in Pages available to developers, so if developers do want to use styled text in their apps, they basically need to write all that code from scratch. If Apple decides to open up the styled text APIs used in Pages to other developers, we'll see some great productivity apps coming out later this year.
15. Improved cursor navigation.
I originally didn't have any suggestions for improving Apple's text entry or onscreen keyboard, but then I saw this concept video by YouTube user danielchasehooper. The concept is simply brilliant and would make cursor navigation much, much easier on the iPad's large screen where text entry fields are generally further away from your fingers than on the iPhone's screen.
iOS 6 is expected to be shown off at this year's WWDC, which runs from June 11-15.
Landon Fuller of the Plausible Labs cooperative has just updated simlaunch, a github project that allows you to create iOS Simulator application bundles that launch from the desktop.
This utility helps developers to share builds for testing, for promotion, and for fun that run on the Mac without need for hardware, special signing permissions, or ad hoc provisions.
Although I contributed to the original project, all the updates were performed by Landon and all kudos and thanks should be aimed in his direction.
Simlaunch is released under the MIT license (which is similar to BSD).
One week after Apple announced it would create another 500 jobs at its European headquarters in Cork, Ireland, the employees there got a visit from none other than Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny. The visit happened yesterday, reports MacWorld UK, and during that time Kenny was snapped chatting with Apple employees, though it's not known exactly what he talked about.
There's no doubt the news of 500 new jobs pleased the PM, as Ireland is one of the EU countries most affected by the current recession. Apple's headquarters and plant in Cork is not only the home of all of Apple's European operations, but it's also an assembly point for the MacBook Pro.
Apple's current plant in Cork was opened in 1980 and was the first non-US headquarters for the company. The location now employs 2,800 people who work in backend, supply chain and distribution operations for Europe. Apple plans to add the additional 500 jobs over the next 18 months.
Are you one of the many devs who miss Xcode's "Fix and Continue" feature? Apple removed "Fix and Continue" in Xcode 4. This option allowed you to patch your binary with updated code, as you ran and debugged it.
For whatever reason, many Amazon authors seem to be under the impression that you can only create a proper table of contents for 
