Sunday
May292011

MobileNotifier beta5, Ecstatic Eggo

After all the press surrounding my last post, I had to do something. Instead of confirm or deny anything, I decided to do something. Something big.
I'm presenting the final release of MobileNotifier that I'll have a part in before my absence. MobileNotifier beta5, Ecstatic Eggo. This release is big in more ways than one. It's the most revolutionary release since the project's inception.
Here's a video I made of the release. I'm the guy in the middle:
What's new?
 - MobileReply. Reply to text messages while within other applications! It works like magic!
Here's a picture:
 - Full message text! Read everything in the alert, not just the first few words.
 - Redesigned minimalist alert display!
 - A brand new AlertDashboard, inspired by our amazing lockscreen view!
Here's a picture:
 - Dismiss alerts right from the popup! Hate going into the dashboard to remove alerts you've just archived? Simply hit the "X" in the popup to dismiss them for good!
 - Recall the most recent alert easily with an Activator action. Then use MobileReply to reply to it!
 - Thanks to work by Marc Easen, MobileNotifier now supports calendar invitation alerts!
 - Way way faster.
What's been fixed?
 - Lockscreen no longer displays if you have it set to "off"
 - Various small bugfixes.
 - Did I mention way way faster?
You'll need to reconfigure your Activator actions for MobileNotifier.
MobileReply, for you developers, is something you can use in your software too! It's self-contained. Check out MNSMSSender in the MobileNotifier source.
Grab the release at the repo - phajas.xen.prgmr.com/repo - and enjoy yourself!
The MobileNotifier Team, Kyle Adams, Tim Novinger and myself, along with external help from Marc Easen, have been working on lots of great new features, and we're truly happy to show them to the world. Along with Kyle, I tested over 100 builds of this release before shipping it.
All of us are also on Twitter! @peterhajas, @kyleadamsdotorg, @timnovinger and @marceasen. Say hi if you'd like!
I really hope you all enjoy this release, I know I'm ecstatic about it!
Like I said in my last post, I'm taking a break, but I'll be back. I think we'll see some great things.
Friday
May272011

Taking a break

I'm taking a break from MobileNotifier and Widge for a while. I have other opportunities and priorities currently. I won't be able to do much (if any) work on the projects, and I won't have time to respond to many Tweets or emails. The project is in capable hands, with Kyle Adams, Tim Novinger and others (like Marc Easen) keeping things going. This is definitely not goodbye.
I can't say why, but it's worth it. Trust me. If you look around hard enough, you'll probably figure it out.
I hope you guys understand, and I look forward to bringing you more awesome, great, free open source software in the future. Stay tuned for some amazing things!
If you absolutely must get in touch with me, send me an email.
Until then, stay hungry and stay foolish.

 

Tuesday
May242011

Announcing 230,000 MobileNotifier Downloads

Thursday
May122011

Making the WidgeKit Developer Prerelease Public

Hi guys!

I'm really pleased to announce today that the WidgeKit Developer Prerelease is going totally public! That's right, starting today, everyone can gain access to the Developer resources and start to make their own widgets.

Here's the Developer Prerelease!

I hope you all enjoy it!

Peter

Wednesday
May042011

MobileNotifier beta4 - Decadent Dinobites

I am proud to announce the immediate availability of MobileNotifier beta4, Decadent Dinobites!

Go to my Cydia repository (phajas.xen.prgmr.com/repo) and grab it :)

There's lots of new stuff! Here are the biggest things:

 - Brand new alert style that lives in the doubleheight statusbar. Takes unobtrusive notifications to the next level!

 - Totally redone lockscreen view. Tap the bar to see a preview of your pending notifications!

 - Intelligent alert dismiss - alerts from the same sender are dismissed if you take action on one of them. Way easier to deal with!

 - Significant performance and bug fixes. Way faster, way less memory and battery footprint, way friendlier to your device!

 - And more! Lots of fun surprises in this release that users will enjoy!

Please note the following:

MobileNotifier is beta software, not everything will work. Please use the MobileNotifier GitHub issue tracker to report. This is the only way I can keep track of issues, bug reports and feature requests reliably.

MobileNotifier currently is incompatible with 3.x devices inevitably. The overhead of supporting both platforms was getting strenuous. I may change this in the future, but no promises.

There are other releases planned within beta4 that will include other features that I think users will really love.

 

Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

Saturday
Apr302011

WidgeKit Developer Prerelease

I'm extraordinarily pleased to announce the Developer Prerelease of WidgeKit, the framework for developing widgets for Widge.

If you're a developer interested in making widgets, please email me at peterhajas(at)gmail(dot)com with the subject line [widgekit-include] and I'll add you to the developer prerelease.

I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Monday
Apr042011

Widge, an iOS widgeting system - Some bits of information

Hi everybody!

After reading responses to my announcement of Widge, my iOS widgeting system, I thought I'd clarify a few things about the project. I hope to have a beta release of Widge very soon!

What is Widge?

Widge is an open source widgeting system for iOS that I'm building along with jailbreak superstar Dustin Howett. Widgets are single-purpose applications, much like the OS X Dashboard Widgets, Windows Vista/7 Gadgets and KDE Plasmoids. Widge has been built from the ground up to not affect system performance to a significant extent. This was a fundamental design decision which we believe makes Widge very competitive. The source is available at the Widge GitHub page. It's GPLv3 licensed.

How does it work for the user?

On iOS, Apple has defined visual language for the homescreen that makes sense. Swipe to the right to see all your other pages, and the left to access Spotlight. Like many other iOS users, I don't use Spotlight very frequently. Wouldn't it be great if we could move Spotlight over a page to the left, and insert Widge in its place? That's exactly how Widge works - you have a Dashboard-like page on Springboard to access your widgets. If you have more widgets than the page allows, they scroll.

I'm a developer, how can I write widgets?

Hi! I'm glad you're excited about writing widgets for Widge! I'm in the process of writing a framework called WidgeKit that allows you to write widgets for Widge very easily. If you're interested in getting in the prerelease program for WidgeKit, please email me - peterhajas@gmail - and we'll talk. If you already have emailed me, look for a message soon!

Anyways, for developers, here's what you need to do:

UIKit/iOS developers:

Write a UIViewController for your widget. It needs to subclass WGWidgetViewController (from WidgeKit) and import it. Once that's done, beyond implementing your widget, you need to write the following functions:

 

-(NSString *)widgetName;
-(int)iconRowsWide;
-(int)iconColumnsWide;

 

and that's it (so far!) Just tell Widge what the name of the widget and its dimensions, and Widge will take care of the rest. Please note that dimensions of widgets are specified in terms of icon dimensions.

Web developers

A powerful part of Widge is its ability to accept widgets written in both Objective-C and in web technologies such as HTML, javascript and CSS. Stay tuned for more news on web widgets - the implementation is being drafted currently.

When can I try Widge out?

If you're a developer, sooner rather than later! I want to get WidgeKit in the hands of as many people as possible. If you're an ordinary user, don't worry yourself! A prerelease will be out once I have a decent library of widgets for you to use. Get excited!

Where can I direct questions?

Email me - peterhajas@gmail - if you have any questions - especially if you'd like to be a WidgeKit developer!

 

Sunday
Apr032011

MobileNotifier beta4 - What's coming?

Hi everybody!

Wow! Since my last post, I was featured all over the internet for MobileNotifier beta3! I was mentioned on Engadget, Gizmodo, Redmond Pie and last (but certainly not least!) WIRED, among many many others! Thanks for all this awesome press!

So, moving forward, what am I looking at bringing to MobileNotifier next?

Here is a blueprint of what's coming:

 - Sound fixes for users reporting duplicate sound issues and other problems. I'm working as hard as I can to fix these sound problems.

 - biteSMS support for users that have requested it for QuickReply.

 - QuickReply support provided internally for replying to your messages immediately.

 - Significantly less obtrusive alerts - living in the statusbar instead of over the view. Kyle Adams and I have been working very hard on this.

 - Brand new lockscreen view - with alert previews and everything!

 - 3.x compatibility fixes. I want older devices to run this - it's made for everybody!

 - And more! Tons of bugfixes and fixed issues.

Stay tuned here and on my Twitter account @peterhajas for updates!

One more thing: what's the ETA? As soon as it's done. I want to make sure there are no bugs with the new issues before I ship out a release.

If you're curious about Widge updates - especially everybody who emailed me about WidgeKit and developing widgets - stay tuned! Big news is coming soon!

Sunday
Feb272011

MobileNotifier beta3 - Copious Corn Flakes

 

MobileNotifier beta3, "Copious Corn Flakes"
First things first, for those of you who hate reading:
It is with great excitement that I release this build of MobileNotifier. This is the largest change since the project's inception, and I believe it's really ready for general use. Read on for the details.
Keep in mind, MobileNotifier is open source! You can access all the source on GitHub. It's BSD licensed.
Before I go any further, the UI design work was done by Kyle Adams, a talented graphics artist who's contributed his free time to the project. Be sure to follow him on twitter @iamkyleadams, or check out his website, kyleadams.org.
In the third beta - referred to internally as "Copious Corn Flakes" - everything's been reworked. The utility is sleaker, faster, leaner, better looking, and considerably refined. Here are the headlines:
New Alerts
Probably the biggest feature in this release is the addition of new alerts. These alerts - designed by Kyle Adams - are easy on the eyes, animate cleanly, and show the app icon. They're just like they should be - unobtrusive and user-respecting.
AlertDashboard
In beta2, I released an early preview of a new feature - the AlertDashboard. This idea has nowe been completed and realized. Accessible from the multitasking switcher (or your own Activator action, should you not have a multitasking device), the AlertDashboard allows you to view your pending alerts, and either remove them or take action on them. It's really smooth and slick, and I think you're going to love it.
Lockscreen View
MobileNotifier now has a handy lockscreen view, showing you the number of pending notifications in an unobtrusive way.
Push Notification Support (really)
In beta2r4, I released full support for push notifications. This is still the case with beta3, but now the application icon is shown on the new alerts and in the AlertDashboard.
And more!
So much has been added in this release, I'd spend a long time writing about all of it. Here's a complete list of what's changed:
 - New alerts
 - AlertDashboard
 - Lockscreen View
 - Full push notification support
 - Completely reworked MNAlertManager, considerably more intelligent
 - Time encoding support with each alert
 - Numerous usability improvements
 - Bug fixes relating to 3.x compatibility, alert display and other internal aspects of the utility
 - and more! The commit log on GitHub is the best place to see all the iterative changes.

 

Enjoy! Comments, questions, concerns go to peterhajas@gmail.com. Issues and bugs go to the aforemention GitHub page's Issues section.

Wednesday
Feb232011

iPad 2

On January 27th, 2010, I sat with my very good friend Vincent Decenzo, eagerly watching the live update text/photo stream from Engadget. It was the day that Apple was set to show off their "latest creation". Everyone knew it was a tablet - an image of the device surfaced the night before, showing a fullscreen maps application. I recall pointing out this means it doesn't multitask - something that was quickly shot down by others online. I was half-right, and the current iPad on 4.2.1 does multitask, but not in a "side-by-side" way. 
Anyways, I remember seeing the blurry, Josh-Topolsky-taken photographs of the tablet. Indeed, it did resemble a "big iPod touch", 4 icons wide on a touch screen, with a dock at the bottom, and a statusbar at the top.
The rumored price, at that time, was $999. I remember saying to Vincent - "there has to be a killer feature here, we're missing something." He agreed with me, and suggested "the killer feature must be price." We were walking from my class to his, in the middle of the event, while I was failing to refresh the news on my phone. I was pretty obsessed with it.
We arrived at his class, and sat in the back. I opened up the lid on my notebook, and we continued to watch the stream. Boom. It hit us. $499. Vincent was right, the killer feature was price. I was sold: it's an amazing large multitouch tablet from Apple, how could you not be?
In the weeks that followed, I told myself I would get the 3G model, in the largest capacity. "I want the remote connectivity" I'd tell myself, "and GPS is important." The only issue was release date - the 3G iPad was set to launch a full month after the WiFi model, and I was bummed about that. I assured myself that I would be able to wait.
That spring, in the period of 5 days, I wrote padBoard, an app that you've read me talk about on this very blog. It was accepted into the store, and it was confirmed that it would launch with the iPad. I was thrilled.
April 3rd, 2010. iPad WiFi launch day. I planned to go with my highschool teacher, close friend and padBoard UI designer J Jolton, to the local Apple Store to check out the iPad. We were both sold on the 3G model, but we wanted to play with them. In a turn of events, I was excited to also be joined by my dad when we went. The three of us met outside the store, and watched people filter in and out, tablets in hand. We went into the store, and were all amazed by the iPads there. It was around that time that I decided I wanted one - a WiFi model - instead of waiting for the 3G version. It's pretty amazing to be convinced after a 45 second demo.
Walking out with my new iPad, I sat down with Jay to talk to him about my spur-of-the-moment decision. He asked for my justification, and I told him one word: Instapaper. Jay was so floored by this that he too returned to the store, purchasing his own WiFi model. We sat in the mall's Caribou Coffee, slates in hand, and played with the devices.
Sitting in the mall coffeeshop is a very vivd memory for me. I recall people walking by, asking "is that an iPad?", and us giddily responding that yes, indeed, this was the mythical Apple Tablet. We were the very definition of Cool.
There was one other thing, though, that sticks out in my memory about this event at the coffeeshop. I pulled up the main page for a news outlet, I can't remember which, and saw an embedded video. I tapped the "play" button, and the video started playing - inline with the content - right on the screen. I was shocked. I had seen this on computers before, but this was something different. The fluidity of the experience was exhilerating, the form factor felt human. This felt natural. That's where I think the magic lies in the tablet form factor.
When I arrived home, my entire family crowded around me to see the iPad. They were as amazed as I was. I recall starting iBooks, and showing a page turn. My mom remarked how much cooler it was than a Kindle. I agreed. I juxtaposed this moment with the time I brought home an iPhone 3G on launch day. Nobody was impressed. This was different.
I'd be lying if I said I weren't excited about the iPad event next week. Like others, I've pondered over the features and spec sheet this device may be packing, and I'm pretty pleased to say that I'm excited either way, and that I'll be buying one either way. This is the first "computer" that my grandmother on my mother's side will have ever owned, and I think that's amazing.
Here are my predictions for the next iPad:
 - Thinner, lighter form factor. 1.25 pounds, 0.3in thin. Lies flat on a table.
 - Front and rear facing cameras. Same resolution as the iPod touch cameras (front VGA, rear 720p)
 - New screen. I'm fuzzy on this - it won't be 1536x2048, but I don't think 1200x1600 is out of the question. It'll be brighter, more sunlight readable and less straining on your eyes. It'll use the new "close-to-glass" manufacturing technique Apple's used in the Retina display.
 - Slick system-on-a-chip, likely called "A5" by Apple. Faster processor, dual core, with more RAM. At least 512MB, probably 1GB. New PowerVR graphics that are amazingly fast.
 - Quad-band GSM and CDMA compatibility for the cellular model, with a choice between Verizon and AT&T.
 - Display out on the device, likely with DisplayPort/Lightpeak/Thunderbolt or whatever it's going to be called.
 - USB or SDXC slot almost a sure lock.
 - WiFi, bluetooth, pretty standard.
 - New prices:
WiFi:
16GB $399
64GB $499
128GB $599
3G:
16GB $499
64GB $599
128GB $699
- New case accessory which locks the iPad when it's closed.
- New iWork
- iLife '11 for iPad, $10/app, featuring iPhoto, Garageband and iMovie.
And that's it. I think this is a pretty good list. I'm pumped for next Wednesday.