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This week, I’ve been working on a radial menu control for an upcoming Juicy Bits app. I recorded a short video that illustrates the evolution of the project and shows the menu in action. The radial menu has proven to be a quick and convenient way to select context-sensitive options. Also, because the buttons are equidistant from the center, your finger doesn’t have to travel around the screen as much. read more
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Smaller Apps with Vector Images
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. Before I get going, it’s important to mention that—while I love vectors—I love bitmaps too!… read more
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Halftone and the iPad Retina Display
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: So how does it look? As many people have mentioned, it’s tough to show the difference… read more
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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! read more
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Confusing iOS Location Services Prompt
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… read more
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I Have No Idea
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. I’ve certainly thought a lot about the question, but I have no special insight into the process or criteria that Apple… read more
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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. read more
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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… read more
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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… read more
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Juicy Bits
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. In February, 2009, I bought a Mac Mini so that I could port my Adobe Illustrator to XAML plug-in to run on a Mac. As a technologist, I was aware of the Apple App Store and had followed… read more