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3/26/2012: Added an update at the end of the post.
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been working on new vector processing code for a future update of my Halftone app for iOS. As I’ve mentioned before, Halftone draws a lot of its graphics using vectors, and as a result, it automatically takes advantage of the new iPad Retina display. These recent experiments have forced me to take a closer look at vector handling in iOS, and I thought I’d share what I’ve learned.
By the end of this post, I hope to convince you that a vector version of your app may require only 14.8% of the space that a bitmap-based Retina version requires.
Today is delivery day for the new iPad! So, I thought I’d show some differences between the non-Retina display on the original iPad and iPad 2, and the new Retina display on the iPad (3rd generation) using Halftone.
First, it seems common to miscalculate the math behind the new screen. While each dimension has been doubled, because it’s been doubled in both dimensions, there are actually four times (2 x 2 = 4) as many pixels on the screen. This diagram illustrates the difference:
My wife and I visited Andy Keck today to see his amazing 1922 Intertype Model C machine (named Eloise). Andy and I met via Twitter because of our mutual interest in Linotype: The Film, and we ran into each other at the Seattle premiere this past Wednesday evening. The film is fantastic, and seeing the Intertype machine in-person made it even better (more photos). Thank you, Andy!
Two days ago, I released an update to my Halftone app for iOS that adds an oft-requested feature: the ability to open photos directly from Facebook, Flickr, and Instagram. The new image picker is the result of more than a month of design and development work, the same code base runs across all devices (with a tailored UI for each device), and it serves as a drop-in replacement for the native iOS image picker. I’m proud of the final product, so I was dismayed to read one of the first tweets about the new version:
One of my favorite apps (Halftone) just updated & added location services as a “key” to continue using the app … WTF?? DELETED!!
Shortly thereafter from another customer:
@juicybits requiring using location services to use app?? 1 star rating
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
In early December, 2011, I was both surprised and flattered to discover that Apple had named Halftone as one of the best photo apps in its App Store Rewind 2011. Since then, I’ve received a lot of e-mail asking me how I did it. That is, what did I do to “get” Apple to pick Halftone? I don’t know what kind of response they expect, but I’m sure that I disappoint them when I respond:
I have no idea.
Ever since I’ve moved to my new blog, the most common request I get (by far) is: “when are you going to post your wallpaper images again?” Well, the answer is: today!
I’ve gone through the 160+ images that I’ve released over the years and culled them down to a set that represents some of the most popular along with some of my favorites. I hope you enjoy them.
Happy Thanksgiving! I was curious about heat transfer while cooking our turkey this year, so I logged the thigh temperature every five minutes. We cooked a 14lb turkey at 350⁰ F in a cooking bag, and it took almost exactly three hours (which includes a 15 minute resting period at the end). Note that I pulled the turkey out of the oven when it reached 180⁰ F, and it continued to warm to 189⁰ F.
The Thermal Imaging Blog has a nice post about cooking turkey, and here’s a post by someone else who tried this last year. If you’re really interested, I found a paper titled Modeling Heat Transfer During Oven Roasting of Unstuffed Turkeys that uses a 2D finite element model to calculate temperatures at different points in the turkey. Cool!
Update on 11/25/2011: I’ve had a few questions about the dotted line in my graph. It’s an exponential trendline that I used to predict when the turkey would reach 180⁰ F.
We received our Nest Learning Thermostat yesterday. The unit and its packaging are exquisite, simple, and well-designed. Other than a drill, the Nest includes everything you need to install it yourself, including a small screwdriver with four interchangeable bits. It took me about an hour from start to finish, and as you can see in the photo, I used one of the optional mounting plates to cover up the bare wall that was behind our old thermostat. Yes, the screen has a slight red tint to it, because it was heating the house when I took the photo. The free iPhone app (and web site) makes it easy to remotely monitor and control the Nest. So far, so good.
Most of my friends know that I’m always working on side projects. And if you don’t know what side project I’m currently working on, that doesn’t mean that I’m taking a break. It just means that I’m being quiet. ;-)
This side project began as an experiment in March, 2009, and over the past 2½ years, it’s become my new full-time job.