Good game: Doodle Jump

There are a few iPhone games I often play. One is Doodle Jump.
I classify DJ as a jump game, a game where you steer a jumping character. The Doodle has what it takes to become a star in the app world. It's cute. It's also important that the steering feels good. I always accept that the death of the Doodle is entirely my own fault and that's a strong indication that the game is fair and the steering is good. This is a very important characteristic of all games.
Further, the sounds are excellent, which is important. Things sound as you would expect them to in this game. The monsters are a laugh and they seem to be saying "very wrong, very wrong".
My kids like to use the different scenes, like the jungle or the football pitch or the Dracula. I don't and I only use them when my kids insist I do. Sadly I'm not a skilled Doodle player. My 6-year old boy's high-score is more than 3 times my own.
I haven't played the game in multi-player mode yet. That's probably because I'm not skilled enough. I need to practice.

iOS5 upgrade problem/panic

Hi App Enthusiasts!
Today I upgraded my iPhone to iOS5. It all went well until I wanted to try out some of the apps I've bought. They all refused to start, except those from Apple itself and one by Proctele. I thought if this is what happens to upgraders, then Apple has screwed up big time.
It turned out they haven't.
I did the following search on the problem: "ios5 none of my apps work" and found this: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1207950
There is indeed an upgrade problem. Every upgrader is going to run into it. And it must be fixed as follows: Make a download from the App Store after the upgrade. This means you must either update some app that you already bought or buy one new app. 
So just go to the updating section in the App Store and see if there's an app waiting to be updated. The other option is to buy an app, free or paid.
I got really worried, but I'm glad the fix was that easy.
Apple really needs to address the issue. They must go and tell the world about the fix!

Timestables on 3 wheels for iPad

Hi all lucky iPad owners! Timestables on 3 wheels for iPad is now in the App Store. 
This version is called "Timestables on 3 big wheels" and I'm sure you can guess why. But it's not just the wheels that are bigger, so is everything else, like the strawberry, the bomb, the tomato, etc.
This version is very much like the iPhone/iPod version, but there's more graphics still. Landscape mode is of course supported too and in fact you can hold your iPad any way you like.
The names in the localized App Stores are as follows:

• Swedish: Multiplikationstabellen på 3 stora hjul
• Dutch: Vermenigvuldiging op 3 wielen – Big Size
• French: Table de multiplication sur 3 roues grandes
• German: Einmaleins 12 mal 12 – Big Size

SMS-Fast v1.2

Hi App Friends!!
The new version of SMS-Fast is available in the App Store. It features a maximum of 5 speed-dials instead of 3. The selection of phone number and email address is now as clear as can be, and absolutely self-instructive. The sounds are as satisfying as they were in v1.0 and the graphics is eye-candy.
You should give it a try. Only $0.99.
The localized names are as follows:

- Swedish: Snabb SMS
- Dutch: SMS snel
- French: SMS rapide
- German: SMS schnell

A few weeks with Xcode4

When I bought OSX Lion I also migrated from the development environment Xcode3 to Xcode4.
I'm running on a MacBook from 2010 and I'm getting used to the news in spite of the many changes.
With Xcode4, Apple has integrated the code development environment with the IB (Interface Builder) and that is an important change. Newcomers to Xcode4 are going to appreciate having just one environment to keep track of. Coming from Xcode3 I was rather confused at first, but now I'm quite happy about it. The IB looks very different. It took some time to find the Objects view, a favorite of mine, because to see it you have to press an obscure button. The icons for the different Inspectors have changed and I'm still wondering what they are supposed to resemble. The project settings are now easier to find and they seem to be fewer.
Another important integration is that of the Source Control. I don't use it, so no comment on it.
For my purposes, Xcode4 is clearly much better than Xcode3, except for one thing: 4 is slower than 3. Sometimes I have to wait for it. This hardly ever happened with Xcode3. I may be looking in the menus or something and suddenly Xcode4 shows the wait-cursor and it can take up to 20 seconds before it returns. If this happens it's important to remain cool. Just wait, don't click! Of course this is annoying, but I trust it will be repaired sometime. Products always mature when they get older as we all know.
Building the target is quick. Provisioning has been taken over by Xcode4. It's quite easy now; almost completely automated.
Quick help is quicker and always present and doesn't obscure the code window. A bug in Xcode3, which annoyed me nearly every day is gone with Xcode4. The bug was that sometimes Xcode3 got lost in the mark-up of the code and would show black, red, green or blue letters in a strange mix. The fix was to save the file (if you had made changes), close it and re-open it.
A disadvantage with the IB integration is that the code window has been slimmed. This has to do with my layout preferences, and anyway it wouldn't show up on an iMac, which has many more pixels on its screen.
Archiving for submission to the App Store is the same. However one thing could have been done better, and I'm sure it will be fixed. It's that the Distribution provisioning has to be set manually. But it could be my own fault, I'm not sure.
Finally: I advise those still using Xcode3 to migrate. "Je ne regrette rien!"

Tomorrow fireworks!

Hi all you number lovers,


Twitter Sophy Davin tells us "... that tomorrow at 7 mins and 8 secs past 6 it will be........ 06 07 08 09/10/11 !!"
Thank you Sophy!
However, more importantly, my wife's birthday is tomorrow, and it's all day. Sadly though, she will no longer be 42.

Jobsless

It's a tragedy we knew would soon happen, that Steve Jobs died. He was a great engineer, esthetician and salesman. His products will be remembered and respected as will his product launch performances. His expression "It just works" I think will stay in the English language.
We will be watching Apple with great interest trying to detect if something has changed and we'll keep waiting for the next generation of products, wondering if they had been different if Steve Jobs had still been in charge.