Apple Development

In the last couple days there was a special ongoing event through the campus computer store for Apple. I went to one of the sessions that was about iPhone development. It was really useful to get to see a demonstration of how to create an app even if the presenter was only able to show a simple quick demonstration. He also spoke of classes at Stanford for iPhone development that are posted on iTunes U for free so I will use those as my main start when I start trying this stuff out. I also found out for sure that you have to pay $99 for a certain developer level so that you can have permission to test your apps on an actual device (not just the simulator that comes with the iPhone SDK) and to add them to the app store.

GUI yuck

For a project for my GUI class my group decided to use Qt for our assignment. It's a C++ based cross platform GUI development environment which is pretty nice. The graphics available look good and it's a little less annoying than the snapping feature in the Netbeans GUI designer.

SDK Adventures

Recently I finally had the motivation to figure out how to at least install the programs necessary for some mobile development. I have had pressure from my dad for a while to get into this. He just got a new Motorola Cliq XT (pretty cool by the way) and so playing with an android phone increased my interest. I went to the apple developers website and spent some time trying to figure out whether I already had the iPhone SDK stuff on my computer with Xcode or not and proceeded to download it when I figured out I didn't. Unfortunately I had not known about the new iPhone OS update so I guess I'll be doing a new download soon before I get to work on this. I started to look at the android development but was put off when I figured that I think I have to use Eclipse or that Eclipse may be the easiest way to do it. I had downloaded Eclipse last year to check it out and wasn't instantly thrilled and it wasn't necessary (Netbeans and Xcode were enough for me) so I uninstalled it. Now I'll be downloaded it again I guess and will probably be playing with android and iPhone development over the summer. Still have mixed feelings on whether I really want to or not.

iPad Revisited

So I was in the computer store on campus the other day buying something and they had a few iPads there for demo. After making my purchase I figured why not try it out cause I was done with classes so I played with it for a few minutes and all my skepticism and put downs fell away. It was just so cool. The iPad was awesome to put it shortly. The feel was great, it did things quickly, and was just a breeze to use with just poking at it to do everything. I know someone that is usually annoyed with computers because they either don't go fast enough, don't do something the way she wants it to, or it's just kinda complicated to remember the menus to go to when using a laptop maybe once a month to play games. I really feel that this would be the perfect thing for her. It'd be great for pictures, games, and to finally do email. For people that are still students like me, it's not gonna cut it. You're going to need some other computer still. The iPad would just be an extra gadget to have (that would do amazing stuff though). So overall, good feelings about it now, but don't have 500 to 600 dollars to run out and buy one. :(

Google vs. Amazon

Recently I had a project for a course in which I worked as a team to make a report of some of the differences and similarities between Google and Amazon. Some of the categories that we compared were employee motivation, ethics, and just a general history of the companies. It was interesting to learn the large differences between Amazon's and Google's corporate cultures. Amazon, according to research, is more of an intense, high paced corporate environment. It is so much the case that they have in the past refused to allow employees to take time off for Christmas and that any employees who called in sick would be fired. Google offers more time off, including Christmas, along with many other amenities at certain office locations. Google is known to offer car wash service, health care including medical and dental, hair stylists, etc. It's interesting to learn of the vast variety of corporate environments that exist in the tech field.

iPad?

Recently there has been a large amount of discussion about Apple's latest product, the iPad. Opinions on the product differ largely. Personally, I think more could have been done with it such as including a camera and a full OS. It will tailor to the consumer masses just wanting a quick and easy way to view the internet and check email. I also learned that HP had actually announced a similar device a few weeks before Apple's iPad. They waited to begin selling after Apple's announcement so that they could adjust the price and other small things.

This is going to be a technology blog for my CSE 3358 Data Structures class where I'll talk about things going on in the technology world, my own experiences, etc.