Slightly more nerdy in reading, but of great entertainment and technological historical significance

Go through the ways that browsers tell websites what type of browser it is. Including masquerading as other browsers, the browser wars of the 90s, the Gecko/Firefox/Camino/Gnome camp and the WebKit/Safari/Konquerer/Nokia/iPhone goodness that we have today. Very interesting read and nice to know that:

And Apple built Safari, and used KHTML, but added many features, and forked the project, and called it WebKit, but wanted pages written for KHTML, and so Safari called itself Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X; de-de) AppleWebKit/85.7 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/85.5, and it got worse.

Read article here.

For those who have ever wanted to be able to create quick and effective graphs simply from Javascript, here is the library for you. Weighing in at 8kb, with a few simple additions to your page you can have a dynamic graph. A great way to present data to users.

  
<canvas id=”example”></canvas>
  <script type=”text/javascript”>
     var g = new Bluff.Line(’example’, 400);
     g.theme_37signals();
     g.title = ‘My Graph’;
     g.data(’Apples’, [1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3]);
     g.data(’Oranges’, [4, 8, 7, 9, 8, 9]);
     g.data(’Watermelon’, [2, 3, 1, 5, 6, 8]);
     g.data(’Peaches’, [9, 9, 10, 8, 7, 9]);
     g.labels = {0: ‘2003′, 2: ‘2004′, 4: ‘2005′};
     g.draw();
   </script>

Download Bluff Library

Yet another iPhone application has been denied from the App Store this week, and yet again the reason is quoted as “duplicating functionality” of an already available iPhone application. In this case, the application in reference is Apple’s own Mail.app on the iPhone. MailWrangler gives a way to easily use multiple GMail accounts simultaneously. Something that you can not do in Safari on the iPhone, as you would have to continuously log in and out of GMail. And why even use the web version of GMail and not use Apple’s own Mail? Access to Contacts, threading and other features that aren’t available. That by definition suggests that the developer isn’t “duplicating” functionality.

The reasoning behind these denials is seemingly more frequently described as duplicating functionality. However, as Macworld points out, Apple seems to have no problem admitting applications that do duplicate most functionality, or even admitting applications by the same name.

… Your application duplicates the functionality of the built-in iPhone application Mail without providing sufficient differentiation or added functionality, which will lead to user confusion. …

As Dan from Macworld points out, Apple owns the App Store and has the right to admit or deny admittance to anyone. However, it would be wise to apply those rules equally and so far it seems safe to say that Apple is not doing so. Let’s hope this changes, or I sincerely believe that the iPhone platform will suffer greatly as developers lose confidence in building great applications for a device that they might never be able to sell it to.

Read complete article on MailWranger denial from Macworld

Wil Shipley of Delicious Monster fame wrote up a lengthy proposal of ways to fix the App Store and the approval process. Mostly Wil discusses the fact that Apple is having to come up with ad-hoc solutions on the fly and needs to set down and fix the real problems (such as allowing a user to buy a 1000 dollar app without a confirmation click) before resorting to censorship. Overall, a very interesting read.

Recently on Daring Fireball, John discusses the basic concepts behind Apple’s “Get a Mac” campaign and Microsoft’s new “I’m a PC” rebut. John points out a few differences between the tactics and why in fact Microsoft’s commercials are more detrimental rather than helpful for the company and the brand.

The framing of Apple’s ads is not about either/or. Not Mac or Windows, a choice between two rival products, like Democrat/Rebuplican, Chevy/Ford, Coke/Pepsi. The framing instead is special vs. regular. Not Coke vs. Pepsi but Coke vs. “soda”.

This is a very important point to be had. While Apple is advertising a superior product that distinguishes your computing experience from the norm, Microsoft is advertising more of the same. More of the same that consumers are already familiar with. The larger picture is that if you want to be generic and blend in with the crowd and have a mediocre computing experience, then having a PC is for you. However, if you want to have that extra special product, and who doesn’t want the Sirius satellite radio or the leather seats in a new car, then the Mac platform is right for you.

I think John’s insight into the differing marketing strategies for these two companies is refreshing. Read the complete article at Daring Fireball.

Through the years I’ve been fervently coding, I would have thought this would have came up during my travels. Just how amazing the comma can be.

for ( int i = 0, NSPoint p = [self updatingCell]; i <    maxIterations && p.x > 0; i++,    p = [self updatingCell] ) {

     // Do something interesting with this NSPoint
}

I’ve used the above approach several times, letting me compact code when in loops. However, the next trick presented by Parmanoir, developer of CocoaNav, is one I never thought of and the article gives a wonderful explanation of the comma operator in C and family.

// Log and return
if (error) return NSLog(@”MyFunction failed with error: %@”, error), NO;

What’s so surprising about this project is that it debuted so quickly after the launch of MobileMe and the popularization of the SproutCore framework. OtherInbox hopes to help reduce clutter in your digital life by eliminating spam, organizing receipts and your overall online life. Will be worth watching to see how it turns out.

OtherInbox is currently in a private beta. You can signup here. The first 25 registering from this blog can get started right away. Thanks for reading Macfanatic and enjoy the invitations!

Ever wanted a truly unique way of browsing through all the Cocoa classes? CocoaNav lets you visualize class relationships and hierarchy, as well as see just what methods are implemented where. Very very handy for those who are not familiar with the NS* family. Free and open source.

Download Now for Leopard Only

Web version for Firefox and Safari

There is something very exciting coming for web developers on the Mac late this fall and it’s from the same great company that gives us 2007 Apple Design Award winner, CSSEdit. MacRabbit has been hard at work giving us the same style, elegance, and usability that is offered in CSSEdit, but for HTML and more. Turns out the project has evolved into a project managing, file editing and uploading beauty that looks to compete directly with Panic’s own Coda, released last year.

Espresso is still in beta testing but is slated for a November 2008 release. I’m very excited to get my hands on this software. Web design is such a tedious process, and while Coda made a valiant attempt at integrating and relieving the stress, it still lacks the poise and elegance that I’m positive MacRabbit will deliver. If you are interested in being the first to know about more MacRabbit news, you can signup at the bottom of the info page.

Also, if you are passionate about a particular language being supported in Espresso, I would encourage you to get in contact with MacRabbit for more information on becoming a “Sugar Daddy” (or Mommy). Developers releasing plugins (called “Sugars”) adding support for a language gets the prestigious title as well as a free copy of Espresso. More details on that here.

Espresso

CSSEdit

Coda from Panic Software

Mac Fanatic Coda Review

With the Grid View being introduced in iTunes 8, all the buzz I’ve read on the net suggested that the previous Album List View was deprecated in this release. However, its still lurking in the shadows.

In the iTunes toolbar, there are three buttons. From left to right: List View, Grid View, and Cover Flow View. If you want to see your album artwork while in List View, in the very top left of the list, there is a small “disclosure” triangle that almost looks like a “now playing” icon on the iPhone and such. Click this and the album artwork displays inline with all your songs in List View.

It’s the same functionality as the previous view, just better implemented as far as I can tell. Can be useful at times, because you can still see your album artwork and have the list sorted by Date Added, for example. You cannot do that in Grid View because all the songs per Album, or Artist, etc, are grouped together.

With the updated iPod Touch, iTunes 8, addition of HD TV shows on iTunes and the return of NBC, the redesign of the Nano seems the most significant to me.

The previous design, 3rd generation, were quite ugly I think.  Just the design as well as the colors.  However, the updated Nano is simply stunning in color and shape.  The updated software, including Cover Flow, is quite impressive as well.  I can’t wait to play with one of these in person.