Let’s cut right to the chase and get to the root of what I think is the problem of haters and people who seem to have forgotten how the landscape looked like. First there was the PC world and there was this tiny company that made shiny white fruit-logo computers that almost nobody cared about. Apple was in fact ‘nothing‘.

If anybody talked about tablets, what you thought off looked like this. Right?

This was referred to as tablets, tablet pc’s, tablet computers, etc. They used to run plain old Windows with some kind of touch support. I haven’t ever used them but I’m pretty sure they weren’t all that practical… Or mobile.

Then in 2010, along came the iPad.

The buzzword Apple used to describe this device was ‘magical‘. And it somehow was. Because never before has there been a tablet that made it into so many people’s homes and companies. Especially in so little time. Apple redefined the word ‘mobile‘. Apple bet on smaller tablets with a more lightweight OS, that looks nothing like previous tablet OS’s. They decided to drop the hardware keyboard completely, together with ethernet, USB slots and everything else that was not 100% vital for the product to work. The iPad was a huge success and in a matter of 80 days they had sold 3 millions iPads.

And then all of a sudden tablets from other manufacturers looked like this.

Yea, all looking a lot like the iPad. Thin, small devices, no hardware keyboard, almost all of them sporting some kind of lightweight mobile OS, completely optimized for touch. Personally I don’t mind: Why should I? Apple made a good move; created a product that people actually like to use. Other companies are now building similar products and I have more choice than ever. Great innovation shouldn’t be in the hands of one company. Good stuff gets copied. And that’s great for the consumer.

Earlier today I saw this post by John Gruber about Samsung now selling SD card reader connectors for their tablets. As it turns out they look exactly like the Apple ones, only they’re black. I tweeted about this, wondering why Samsung might be doing this? Minutes later I got a response, saying the same thing that many others have been saying about the whole style-copying thing: How could they possibly make it look differently? 

So all of a sudden Apple is just using the most simple design style in the world that is so obvious and yet everybody else fails to use it unless Apple leads the way… I’m sorry but I don’t buy it. Sure, Apple is using a simple, sleek design on its current products that couldn’t be any more basic but their designs are quite unique when first released. And only weeks/months later, the competition comes up with products that look just like Apple’s because how else could they design it?

Again: I’m not judging Samsung (and every other company for that matter) for doing it: It’s the right way to go. If you can’t beat them, join them. But nobody can deny that (in this case) Samsung is just blatantly copying Apple. And if your excuse is “How else could they possibly design it?“, go back to the beginning of this post and ask yourself: “How could Apple possibly make a tablet that looks different than the pre-Apple established tablet spectrum?”
Exactly.

I’m very aware I might be forgetting some tools. However the ones listed here are the only ones I actually used at least once. Feel free to add other tools, the way they work and your findings about it in the comments.

Note: If anything, I consider myself an iPhone developer, not so much an Android developer, let alone a mobile developer. My findings and views on things are based on my preference towards iOS development. I’m not bashing the Android Platform. I just know more about the iOS platform. I just wanted to state that for the record before you read on.

Phonegap

I’ll kick off with Phonegap. Why do I think this is the most simple one? Well, it actually doens’t require the knowledge of anything new to create your first app. If you have ever built a mobile web app, you can create a Phonegap app.

Phonegap is essentially a web app -the same one you built the other day at work- embedded in a native wrapper. You build the app using HTML/CSS and Javascript. You can use plain old Javascript or make your life easier by using jQuery, Prototype, Sencha Touch, MooTools, etc to handle the interaction. Just like any other mobile website.

What the enduser sees is in effect a web app running inside a webview. So what’s the native wrapper for? Well it provides Javascript API’s to give access to the contacts, filesystem, camera, microphone, GPS, etc. Phonegap provides the bridge to the API’s normal web apps can’t get access to. It’s that simple.

Personally I don’t see the appeal; most definitely because the browser performance doesn’t come close to native app component performance. Think about scrolling through a list of 1000 entries.
I know a lot of people babble on about how you can ‘just turn your webapp into a native app‘. But what’s the point!? That native app doesn’t provide anything the web app doesn’t and it’s an app. You could as well make it a full fledged web app which users can just add to the homescreen.

URL: Phonegap

Flash / Adobe AIR

Yea, you didn’t see that one coming, did ya? Yes, Flash can create iOS apps too. And of course you can create Android apps too (and you can even create Flash websites for Android!). Why does Flash come second in this list? Well anyone who can create a Flash app could create a iOS app using Flash. The eagle-eyed viewer has already noticed how I mentioned could in that last sentence. I have tried to create several apps (that actually do something) and every time I ended up realizing the same one thing: It performs like shit.

For those of you who don’t know: I spent the past 7 years being an active Actionscript developer. I’m not what one might call a Flash-hater. I’ve tried to create simple games and apps for iOS using Flash. A game using the accelerometer (which crashed when too much accelerometer data came in simultaneously. Limiting that datastream kind of went in the way of the actual game) and an app using the microphone (processing microphone input on an iPad 1 was so hard that any UI interaction would make the audio playback stumble). Both of them ended up staying ideas until I finally get my head around native iOS development.

Flash can compile native iOS apps. Those apps are not interpreted at runtime. Adobe says they’re actually generating the native binary that you would get if you built it using Xcode. Seeing how the performance of several natively-built games is perfect and Flash-generated apps (not even games) perform horribly, I’d say Adobe has quite some work before making Flash a viable tool for (at least) iOS development.

And I know what you’re thinking right now: “Dude, what about that Flash game that made #1 in the app store, not too long ago?“. Yea… Let’s talk about that… Why didn’t it run on my 1st generation iPad? Did the app need a camera? No. Then what else does the iPad 2 have, that iPad 1 doesn’t? Yes: CPU/GPU power. Let’s face it: It’s not an overwhelming 3D game. It’s a 2D game. It should run just fine on the 1st generation iPad. In comparison: The Back To The Future game (which is completely in real time 3D) runs just fine on my iPad 1. And so does the (rightfully named) Epic Citadel demo featuring the Unreal engine for iOS.

And if you have ever created a Flash app, you know how annoying debugging can get. Well debugging a Flash app on a device isn’t exactly what I’d call fun.

URL: Flash CS5.5 – Flash Builder 4.5

Titanium

This is actually my favorite. It gives best of both worlds. Titanium provides close to native performance (by using the native components) whilst  having a simple and powerful API that gives access to just about any interface either iOS and Android has. I created a few apps using Titanium and all I can say is: It’s the fastest iOS app development tool I’ve seen yet. You can create great looking and feeling applications in very little time.

You create the app writing Javascript and calling Titanium’s APIs. “How is this different from Phonegap” you think? Well, the Javascript you write is interpreted at runtime (I’m guessing a WebView). However this webview is invisible and ONLY does business logic. In fact: It only does custom logic. For example: When you create a TableView, you call Titanium.UI.createTable() in Javascript. This calls a Titanium API that runs native code in the background and returns a native iOS/Android component with native performance. You populate the table component using more Javascript. Once the data is in there, the table behaves exactly as fast and smooth as any other tableview in iOS… Because it is a tableview in iOS. (Or in Android… You get the point)

The Javascript calls to the Titanium API are mapped to native code in the Titanium framework and generate native components. Events in those components are sent back to your code in Javascript where you can handle them. The end result is very fast performance. The slowest part of any Titanium app is app logic/handling events in Javascript (and let’s face it: That’s still faster than you can blink). The UI interactions, UI animations, UI effects and some platform specific calculations are completely native. Yes, native is key here. It means performance. Better performance means allows better user experience. (Some people still mess it up, even if performance is as good as it can be).

That native performance is wonderful. That’s why I love Titanium. The only bad thing I’ve come to notice. You can’t do any kind of image processing. So if you’re thinking about building the next Instagram, don’t use Titanium. Even though you have complete access to iOS’/Android’s camera API, you can’t heavily edit the image… And the same goes for editing audio/video. So in the end: Titanium can only create data-driven applications.

Oh btw: Titanium is free. It comes with a lot of luxury, some great tools, good debugging and access to everything native on iOS and Android! All that, for free. And open-source!

URL: Titanium Mobile Application Development

Corona

I first heard about Corona about a year ago. When I checked it out back then, I didn’t seem all that convincing and I didn’t spend much time exploring it. However when I was writing this blogpost I gave it another glance and I have to say: A lot has changed.

It looks like Corona has truly grown up and provides a massive API to create 2D games for iOS, Android and others. You write your code in Lua and when done you create a game that runs at native speed. Since I haven’t tested this myself, I wasn’t really convinced at first… until I saw the demos that were created in only a few hours and performed exactly like the blockbuster hits in the App Store. That’s immense!

Yea, remember those ideas for Flash games I had? I might just give Corona a run for it’s money. Again: Might just. If I spend 200$ for an application that should replace my free tools (Titanium & Xcode), I’d better really build a game with it.

URL: Ansca Mobile – Corona

Unity/Unity3D

This is by far the most exciting tool of all. One problem: Unity is designed to create 3D games. If you want to create a todo-app, this isn’t what you’re looking for.

The development environment is great, you can write the code in Javascript, CSharp and a handful other languages. The components can be put together using drag & drop. There’s an insanely extensive debugging environment. And when you feel the need to change some of the generated Objective-C code… You can. Unity generates an actual Xcode project before compiling the final app. You can access that project and change things according to your needs.

The 3D assets can be created with almost any 3D modeling application out there: 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D, Blender and a few others. Unity even provides ways of nicely importing them. There’s also a 3D modeling feature in Unity itself, however I don’t know anything about it.
Soundscapes for the game can be created with any application you like and then imported into Unity. Again: there seems to be a sound editor/creator inside of Unity which they claim is pretty complete.

The one thing that I really love about Unity is the debugging features. It’s just brilliant. There’s several levels of testing your app.

1. In-IDE testing: Just hit the play button and you can run the game inside the development IDE using the keyboard and mouse.
2. Everything working fine? Okay, but now you’d like to test how the input with the iPhone or iPad work: Touch and accelerometer-based input. Well… There’s an app for that. The Unity Remote connects your iPhone/iPad over Wifi to your Unity IDE and sends the relevant input to the game running inside the IDE. At the same time you can see the game output (game UI) on your iPhone/iPad. The result is quick and easy testing of the game ‘on the device’ (since both input and output are both on the device) without installing it on the device.
3. Okay: Now we want to really test on device. You know, the way you’d do it in Xcode for example. That’s possible too: Just run the app on the device and have full on-device-debugging power. It’s just a few clicks away. The full debugging power comes straight out of Xcode. There isn’t any other tool that comes close to Xcode’s device-debugging. At the same time you can see all your logging inside the Unity IDE too. There’s actually multiple ways of debugging depending on your personal preferences. How’s that for 1 tool… Some creative suites don’t offer this kind of debugging choices.

When you’re ready to deploy your app, Unity creates the actual native app. Android, BlackBerry or iPhone (or desktop)(and soon Flash!!) are supported. And if you think the performance of this will be horrible since you’re creating a massive 3D game without writing native Objective-C: Nope. The performance is off the hook. It’s insanely good. Don’t want to believe me? That’s okay. How about Electronic Arts? Yea, if one of the world’s most famous game developers choses Unity, there is probably something to it.

URL: Unity3D

Xcode / Native iOS Development

Xcode is the official toolset provided by Apple for any Mac and iOS development. And yes: This one is last in this list since, in my humble opinion, Objective-C is hard. I learned a way of implementing MVC at school but as it turns out, the one used in iOS development is very different. It requires quite some adaptation. There’s lots of strange syntax I’ve never seen. The development environment is pretty big and complex. Then there’s the .h and .m files (“What’s the difference…?“). There’s something called storyboarding that seems insanely weird at first, but actually makes total sense once you get what it’s for… Etc. Yes, Xcode is definitely the hardest tool of them all to get started.

However I don’t think Xcode needs a lot of explanation. It’s the tool provided by Apple. It’s what Apple considers the best tool they could get in the hands of their developers. And to be truly honest: It’s a pretty complete suite. It creates a native binary. There’s nothing more close to home than this.

URL: Apple Developer Tools

Conclusion

Conclusion? There’s no conclusion! This was supposed to be a list of different tools to create apps for iOS (and Android and others) and explaining how they’re different from their colleagues/competitors.
But since you’re asking for one: I’d say depending on the kind of application you’re looking to build there’s a tool for you.

• For 3D games: Use Unity. It’s powerful, it’s specifically designed to help you create games and you can create for multiple platforms.
• For 2D games: I’d recommend Corona. It looks pretty promising. The API provides quite a lot of preinstalled game features (e.g. physics with Box2D). I’m pretty sure you can create a decent game with this, faster than you would in Xcode with Objective-C.
• For purely data-drive apps: Use Titanium. You get the best of both worlds. Fast development & native look and feel.
• For heavy calculating apps (e.g. Image/Video/Audio processing): Go native. It’s the only way. You could create a Titanium module which does the heavy lifting (using Objective-C)… But what’s the point. You could as well just create the entire app in Xcode then.
• I don’t know when I’d ever use Phonegap to create an app…
• Don’t use Flash.

If you haven’t heard about the latest developments between Apple and Samsung, you probably lived on another planet (or you just don’t care enough about this kind of geek news). Apple has filed injunctions in multiple countries and continents in the world against Samsung and their latest Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, which is supposed to be an iPad killer. Apple’s intentions are to prohibit Samsung from selling the tablet in Australia, Europe and other regions in the world.

First off: That thing is no iPad killer. Even if it had guns and rocket launchers to take care of the big rival that is the iPad. It’s the same price (or even more expensive), the user experience is nothing special compared to the iPad, nor does it provide you with anything you really really need. Again: iPad killers are not just copies of the iPad with a different name tag. Those are just copies.

And that’s what those injunctions are about. Apple doesn’t like where Samsung is going with their tablet business. Granted: The Galaxy Tab does look a lot like the iPad. I’m not a expert on the case but you gotta hand it to Apple: They’ve got a point.

However: That does not mean that people shouldn’t be allowed to have the choice. If my friend likes Android and is looking forward to buying a Galaxy Tab, then he should be able to do just that. Blocking consumers from buying what they want is not cool. Forcing them to buy the iPad instead is not cool. Making them pay a lot of money (yes, 500-800€ is not an inconsiderable amount of money) to buy a device they don’t even really want and then not give them everything they were looking for (they wanted an Android device for a reason…) is not good business. Does Apple really need that kind of customers? People that were forced into buying iDevices because competitors were blocked out of the market? No.

Apple should let Samsung just go right ahead and come to an agreement (for example, Apple gets 10% of every device sold). Apple always stated they put their customers in the first place. Why not have the same decency and treat other people just as well. Apple was all about choice. So why can’t those Android fanboys have their way with the Galaxy Tab? They have been waiting eagerly for that device just as much as Apple fanboys have been waiting for the iPhone 5.

You have no right to limit the choice of non-Apple customers because of a mistake made by your competitors. Those people did nothing wrong. I see where you have issues with Samsung; most of us do. So take it out on Samsung: make them pay or whatever.
But let consumers buy whatever they want. That is cool.

Yea, sure: I won’t blame iOS for trying to correct ‘Mmmmmm‘ or ‘Jaaaaa‘ since those are no real words (at least not in the Dutch language which were used during most of the above events). However others don’t make sense at all.

The big problem with all of this is: The iPhone dictionary isn’t customizable nor intelligent. It doesn’t learn that ‘pastabar‘ is an actual word. But as I found out today, there’s a little work around for that too. Requires no jailbreak and little overhead.

• Go to your contacts on your device.
• Add a new contact. Name it ‘Dictionary’ (or any other name that makes sense to you).
• In the company field: Add any words you’d like iOS to accept as real words.
• You’re done! Go to any app that let’s you write and type a word iOS usually would try to correct… Like magic, iOS now leaves you alone. (And even better: It will also suggest those new words when applicable)

One more thing…

As this is a contact, this dictionary will sync between your various devices, thus eliminating the need of doing this on multiple devices or going over all the words when you buy a new device. How’s that for an extra bonus?

Yea, sure it’s not as perfect as one might want but it’s good enough for now. That little workaround will save you time and nerves in the future. Spread the love to your fellow iPhone/iPad/iTouch users. They will be grateful

Considering the iPad and the consistent perfection with which Apple handles the UI experience, the bar is set pretty high on being able to deliver the same quality experience, let alone improving it.

So if you’re not the first, and chances are real you won’t deliver a better experience, pricing it the exact same way as the main competition  (or even worse/higher/more expensive) is not called an iPad-killer.

It’s called bad business.

Near the end of June, I started a little experiment, just for fun, which would just immitate fridge magnets. I wanted to make it a multi-user experience. So everybody hitting the page would see the changes that are being made realtime. I built the first version and was quite happy.

But a few days ago, it struck me: I can just use the code I used for that experiment and port it to the iPad using the iPhone Packager (which comes with Flash CS5). So I did!

Although I had to change some of the code (loading settings files, etc), I was actually able to build this application rather quickly. I also added a multi-room feature, so everybody can have their own fridge with magnets
So you can now actually leave your boy/girlfriend a message on a virtual fridge (with no food in it) and then mail him/her the link! He/She can then rearrange the letters and leave you a message in return; Fridge-magnet style! That’s geeky, right!?

About the application

‘Spread the word’ is both an iPad and a browser application.
The clients are built using Flash Builder (for the browser app) and Flash CS5 (iPad app). The multi-user support is a Red5 application.

‘Spread the word’ online

You can view the application in the browser by hitting the following URL:

http://spreadtheword.nocreativity.com

If you want to have your own fridge, just add ‘?myOwnFridge’ (replace ‘myOwnFridge‘ with a name of your choice). For example

• http://spreadtheword.nocreativity.com?test
• http://spreadtheword.nocreativity.com?mySecretRoom
• http://spreadtheword.nocreativity.com?imOnAHorse

‘Spread the word’ for iPad

Currently the iPad application is only available though my Cydia repo. I will however be trying to get it into the Apple App Store (I know about 3.3.1, I’m still giving it a shot ). The app also supports rooms, so feel free to go crazy (but be nice, there’s kids on the internet )

If you want to install the iPad application you need a jailbroken iPad. If you haven’t added my repository to your Cydia sources yet, follow these instructions:

1. Open Cydia on your jailbroken iPad
2. Go to the ‘Manage’ tab
3. Tap ‘Sources’
4. Tap ‘Edit’ in the upper right corner
5. Tap ‘Add’ in the upper left corner
6. Fill in the following URL: ‘http://nocreativity.com/cydia’
7. Tap ‘Add source’
8. You’re done!

To install Spread The Word for iPad, do this:

1. Open Cydia on your jailbroken iPad
2. Go to the ‘Sections’ tab
3. Find the ‘noCreativity’ section
4. Tap on the application (there’s only one in that list right now, so you can’t do anything wrong from this point on )
5. Tap ‘install’ in the upper right corner
6. Tap ‘Confirm’ in the upper right corner
7. When the installation is done, exit Cydia. Spread the word should be installed now. Have fun!

Credits

Eventhough I created this app myself, I owe a big thank you to Eugenia Furman for letting me use her beautiful letters. Those are actually real letters, which she created herself. They’re for sale on Etsy. They’re really awesome. Make sure you go and check out her other work. I totally love it!

The iPad. Doesn't it look like it were a stretched version of the iPhone?(Picture taken from Engadget.com )

So: to the point. If you haven’t heard about Apple’s last new big thing, you probably lived on another planet for the past couple of weeks. Yes, I’m talking about the amazing iPad! I could start by talking about what a great piece of engineering this probably is (that thing is pretty thin, and it has a pretty big display so my guess is that this wasn’t easy) but that just wouldn’t do justice at all.

I mean… Did you see the thing?! It’s a big iPhone (actually iPod Touch)! No bullshit. It really is just a magnified version of the iPhone and its OS.

They didn’t take the courtesy of creating an OS from scratch for this device and they really should have. That’s just complete bullocks. Why even bother…?

If anybody at Apple is reading this (I’m 100% sure nobody is, so this is actually more like making a statement): What the FUCK (yea, uncensored) where you guys smoking when you decided it would be a good idea to actually go on and create this thing?

I remember when the first fake mockups appeared. They all looked exactly like the real thing: Just a big iPhone. And everytime I saw one of them I said to myself: ‘This ain’t the real deal… Apple is smarter than this. If they come up with a tablet PC, they’ll innovate and create a new experience that will actually make sense for a tablet computer‘.
You just have to agree: Apple knows how to innovate things and create new experiences. There might be a slight discussion here about who invented the wheel and who started selling it only years later, but that’s not the point. They actually come up with new ideas and eventually will push the envelope and in the end: they create an experience that just works.

With the iPad (what an annoying name… ) they really didn’t! It really is just an oversized iPhone!
You think I’m exaggerating?  Well let’s compare…

1. What physical buttons does the device have?
   • iPhone: Home button, sleep button, volume control, silenced mode
   • iPad: Home button, sleep button, volume control, silenced mode
2. How do you unlock the device?
   • iPhone: You slide the bottom of the screen from left to right.
   • iPad: You slide the bottom of the screen from (center) left to (center) right
3. How does the home screen look?
   • iPhone: 4 rows, 4 columns of applications. 1 dock with 4 applications.
   • iPad: 5/6/7 (?) rows, 4 columns of applications. 1 dock with 4 applications.
4. Does the statusbar do anything special?
   • iPhone: No. Carrier/wifi signal, clock, battery status.
   • iPad: No. Carrier/wifi signal, clock, battery status.
5. Is there a camera?
   • iPhone: Yes, but not facing the user.
   • iPad: No. None. (Wtf??)
6. Can you run different applications at the same time?
   • iPhone: No.
   • iPad: No.
7. Can it run Flash in the browser?
   • iPhone: No.
   • iPad: No.
8. How much does the cheapest version cost?
   • iPhone: 475€ (Belgium, factory unlocked)
   • iPad: 499$ (current price announced on the Apple site)

So what am I missing? How is this device different besides a few changes to the calendar, mail, iBooks and a faster CPU? (Don’t you even think about ‘it runs iWorks’. It’s a tablet PC! Any Windows tablet device can run the latest Microsoft Office package. Being able to run this is just plain basics and common sense… Nothing worth drooling over).

But hey: Again, this is Apple. They really innovate things and keep the coolest stuff for the end. The really cool feature about this is the following. Ladies and gentlemen. Steve Jobs gives you…

Nothing

I read somewhere Steve Jobs said this is the most significant thing, he had done in his life.
I beg to differ. I really respect the man a lot. He has done a great deal of amazing things, and he has inspired me to do certain things with my life, which otherwise I wouldn’t have thought about. But this must be embarrassing to him and probably the people working at Apple.

So: the round up is: You get a device that looks ridiculous, that doesn’t run Flash, allows no multitasking, doesn’t do ANYTHING – NOT ONE THING – special at all, with no camera, no microphone (?),  and no dedicated OS.

What have they been working on all those years? This really is nothing more than taking the existing iPhone/iTouch technology to a bigger size without ANY kind of innovation. And it’s not even as cheap as it looks. This is totally un-Apple.

When the rumors became certain that Apple would release a tablet to the world, I expected a masterpiece of innovation, that really takes advantage of tablet computing. But this time, Apple really disappointed. They took their iPhone hardware, magnified it by 200%, put almost the same (LIMITED) OS on it and released it as if it were a completely new world opening up. But it isn’t.

It just an oversized iPhone. An even more compact Macbook Air with the same boring and unimpressive iPhone OS on it. I am not impressed.

Not one bit.