CoreAnimation
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Reuters TV crams streaming news into your iPhone
Reuters is getting in on the streaming news game, too. With Reuters TV, the outfit's targeting commuters that want to keep up on current events with personalized, on-demand and live content that's downloadable for offline viewing. Reuters promises real-time coverage as well, giving examples like streaming protests in Egypt or presidential speeches from our nation's capitol. Video content will range from 5 - 30 minutes in length and is produced exclusively for the iOS app, drawing from the news organization's some 2,500 journalists on the ground in over 160 countries. Sounds a bit like what the BBC recently did for its app, and this could be great for folks where underground WiFi and cell data isn't available just yet, we'd imagine.
Core Animation tutorial screencasts
The Pragmatic Bookshelf has published a series of Core Animation tutorials, that are available for purchase and download. These four screencasts walk you through the process of building Xcode projects and incorporating Core Animation features into them. Each tutorial runs for about a twenty to thirty minutes and includes a live voice over by developer Bill Dudney. They take you step-by-step through the development process for several projects. Don't look for a general overview of Core Animation and the technology behind it in these videos. They take it for granted that you know the vocabulary (such as layers and timing functions) and that you understand what Core Animation should do. The videos help you to move that knowledge into Xcode. These videos are best for the self-reliant programmer who's looking for a little bit of low-cost hand-holding while getting started. Each of the four tutorials cost five dollars and are available in both full-screen and iPod-compatible resolutions.
Bookwatch: Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X gets updated
Way back in December, our Christmas Gift Guide featured our pick of the many OS X-related books out there. One of the recommendations was the (very excellent) Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X by Aaron Hillegass - commonly referred to as 'The Bible' in the Mac development community.At the time the book was a little outdated -- however in the last couple of weeks an updated third edition has been published. New sections feature Objective-C 2.0, Core Data, Garbage Collection, Xcode 3 and Core Animation, meaning this third edition is all ready for many of the new technologies in Mac OS X Leopard.At just $32 (via Amazon.com), this updated version clearly ought to be on every developer's bookshelf (and aspiring developer's wishlist).
Leopard's Core Animation to herald more than shiny tricks
Steve Jobs demoed some exciting features last year that are coming in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, but one of the most fundamentally cool that might have been overlooked is Core Animation. While it certainly isn't quite a feature that us end users can directly click on and use, it is an entirely new set of user interface paradigms and tools Apple has developed for 3rd parties to build into their apps (i.e. - stuff we will be able to see, click and and say 'wow' to). Since Apple has been putting developer builds into the hands of people that need them, some of the most notable of these devs have announced Leopard-only versions of their apps, including Allan Odgaard (TextMate), Wil Shipley (Delicious Library) and Gus Mueller (FlySketch and also VoodooPad). Citing various reasons for going Leopard-only, Core Animation has remained one of the constant but underestimated factors for diving into Leopard and not looking back. To help explain more of just what is so interesting in Core Animation, Wired's Scott Gilbertson has just written up a great piece elaborating a bit more on just how much Core Animation will change how user interfaces in both Mac OS X and 3rd party apps are thought about and designed. Gilbertson includes a few choice quotes from notable 3rd party developers, and even manages to point out that, in a few ways, the so-called 'Delicious Generation' might have been a little ahead of their time by experimenting with animation and new forms of UI. Gilbertson's article is a great read for anyone who can't wait until Monday to get another peek into how much potential Leopard holds for changing the face of computing and user interfaces as we know them.
