How to get a cheap computer e-book bargain
With all the rage with e-books and e-book readers these days, if you are one of the lucky ones that has an e-book reader capable of reading DRM-free PDFs, and you are interested in techy books, I would suggest going straight to the publishers. Two big publishers I use are O'Reilly and APress, which make excellent programming and I.T books.
DropBox and iPad?
Dropbox allows you to sync your files online and across your computers automatically.
- 2GB of online storage for free, with up to 100GB available to paying customers.
- Sync files of any size or type.
- Sync Windows, Mac and Linux computers.
- Automatically syncs when new files or changes are detected.
- Work on files in your Dropbox even if you're offline. Your changes sync once your computer has an Internet connection again.
- Dropbox transfers will correctly resume where they left off if the connection drops.
- Efficient sync - only the pieces of a file that changed (not the whole file) are synced. This saves you time.
- Doesn't hog your Internet connection. You can manually set bandwidth limits.
Sharing files is simple and can be done with only a few clicks.
- Shared folders allow several people to collaborate on a set of files.
- You can see other people's changes instantly.
- A "Public" folder that lets you link directly to files in your Dropbox.
- Control who is able to access shared folders (including ability to kick people out and remove the shared files from their computers).
- Automatically create shareable online photo galleries from folders of photos in your Dropbox.
Dropbox backs up your files online without you having to think about it.
- Automatic backup of your files.
- Undelete files and folders.
- Restore previous versions of your files.
- 30 days of undo history, with unlimited undo available as a paid option.
A copy of your files are stored on Dropbox's secure servers. This lets you access them from any computer or mobile device.
- Manipulate files as you would on your desktop - add, edit, delete, rename etc.
- Search your entire Dropbox for files.
- A "Recent Events" feed that shows you a summary of activity in your Dropbox.
- Create shared folders and invite people to them.
- Recover previous versions of any file or undelete deleted files.
- View photo galleries created automatically from photos in your Dropbox.
Dropbox takes the security and privacy of your files very seriously.
- Shared folders are viewable only by people you invite.
- All transmission of file data and metadata occurs over an encrypted channel (SSL).
- All files stored on Dropbox servers are encrypted (AES-256) and are inaccessible without your account password.
- Dropbox website and client software have been hardened against attacks from hackers.
- Dropbox employees are not able to view any user's files.
- Online access to your files requires your username and password.
- Public files are only viewable by people who have a link to the file(s). Public folders are not browsable or searchable.
The free Dropbox iPhone app lets you:
- Access your Dropbox on the go.
- View your files on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
- Download files for offline viewing.
- Take photos and videos and sync them to your Dropbox.
- Share links to files in your Dropbox.
- View interactive photo galleries.
- Sync downloaded files so they're up-to-date.
A mobile-optimized version of the website is available for owners of Blackberry phones and other Internet-capable mobile devices.

Squarespace: Get your own blog site thats fancy yet dead easy to create
If you are still shopping around for the best looking, yet easiest way to create your own blog site, I would suggest SquareSpace! I have looked at WordPress, Blogger, and all the others, and you know, maybe some of them are free, or offer a free package, but for the amount of effort and technical knowledge you need, it may not be worth it, and SquareSpace gives you all the glitz and fancy stuff, more easily than anyone else. So just try it out for free, no credit card needed, for fourteen days and let me know how you go.
- Nothing to set up, nothing to tweak, nothing to install, nothing to scale, nothing to optimize (SEO).
- Anti spam system.
- Like building blocks for the web. With our 20+ core modules, you can snap your site together in seconds.

- Drag and drop control.
- Total control: update any part of your site, at any time, right from the front of your site. No developer help required. No waiting.
Apple’s New Stance On ‘Cookie Cutter’ Apps: Add More Features Or Perish
In the wake of Apple’s sudden decision to remove nearly all “sexy” applications from the App Store, we’ve been hearing that the company is also clamping down on so-called “cookie-cutter” applications — iPhone apps that are built from templates using one of the many app-building services available. This would be yet another major change for the App Store, as it already features thousands of such applications. And, perhaps more important, quite a few companies have sprung up to facilitate building iPhone applications. I’ve reached out to Apple to ask if they’d like to clarify their stance, but given their lack of transparency in the past, I’m not betting on getting anything definitive. To try to get to the bottom of the current situation, I spoke with multiple developers (some of whom wished to remain anonymous) to find out what Apple was telling them.
Between the developers I spoke to, the consensus was this: Apple doesn’t appear to be opposed to ‘app generators’ and templates per se, but in the last month or so it has started cracking down on basic applications that are little more than RSS feeds or glorified business cards. In short, Apple doesn’t want people using native applications for things that a basic web app could accomplish. For some of these services that’s bad news, because that’s exactly the sort of application they produce; any new applications they submit are going to get rejected. But all hope isn’t lost for them, provided they can make their apps more useful.
Unlike the ’sexy’ app ban that took place a few weeks ago, when Apple gave developers no options to keep their apps on the store, over the last month the company has been reaching out to at least a few app building services to suggest what they should be doing.
The founders of Appmakr
, which has been used by publications like The Atlantic
to build iPhone applications, say that the process has been quite positive (though they are quick to clarify that applications built with their tools are more full-featured than the basic RSS apps described above). After some suggestions from Apple, the service is integrating new features like in-app purchases, instant notifications, offline access, and landscape viewing modes to their app templates. Another developer mentioned that they might include a tip calculator for restaurant apps. Appmakr’s hope (and one that I’m sure is shared by other developers) is that applications generated using their tools will eventually be given an accelerated path through the App Store’s approval process, because Apple is familiar and happy with the kind of apps they produce.
However, from what I’ve gathered not everyone is having as much luck as the Appmakr team. Multiple developers mentioned that they’d heard of some app vendors that Apple wasn’t being nearly as accommodating towards — I suspect services offering the most basic templates are getting hit hardest. That said, the developers I spoke to said that they’d only heard about Apple blocking newly submitted applications, and that there wasn’t an indication that Apple is going back and removing all of the overly-basic apps they can find.
So why is Apple doing this? Here’s what Medialets
CEO Eric Litman had to say, which I think perfectly summarizes the situation.
This is the ongoing balance point between encouraging innovation and growth on one side and wanting to tightly control user experience on the other. Apple wants iPhone apps to be superior to Web experiences because they are extremely sticky and drive people specifically to buy the iPhone over competing smartphone platforms. Apps that are too simple or largely indistinguishable from the Web, other apps or particularly other apps on other platforms send the message to end users that the iPhone app ecosystem might not be particularly special.
Now the challenge for Apple is that the app building platforms are extremely attractive to a wide swath of the market that would otherwise be reluctant to bear the cost and complexity of developing an app from scratch. We have already seen apps from personal bloggers up to major media brands using some of these platforms, and many of the folks in that spectrum have content Apple would certainly want in the App Store. Interestingly, some of those same developers also have fully custom-built apps in the App Store, too.
So what are the platforms to do about the recent crackdown from Apple? There’s really only one choice if they want to continue to exist on the iPhone: invest in building out considerably more flexibility into their platforms to allow each app to differ from the others they build. Integrate more features and take the time to nail the design and UI elements to be representative of what Apple wants to see in every app.
For better or worse, Apple will be looking more closely at apps from the platforms than from individual developers. AppLoop, the first startup to announce and iPhone-specific app builder, is already gone. Others will almost certainly follow.
Overall, this will almost certainly result in a better experience for users as they have to deal with fewer spammy apps. But, as I wrote when Apple launched its war on sex apps last month, the policy change may also scare developers. After effectively sending a message to developers that basic applications were okay, Apple is again changing its mind. Some developers may be hesitant to build their businesses around the iPhone, knowing that at any moment Apple could change its mind and cut off their only mode of distribution.
Thanks to Robert Strojan
for the tip
Photo by GoosmurfInformation provided by CrunchBase
Taking shelter from the rain in town
In a camel :)Objective-C Open source libraries
Libraries:
1. Three20
Three20 is a collection of iPhone UI classes, like a photo viewer, and general utilities, like an HTTP disk cache. Here is the list of components available in Three20
Photo Viewer
TTPhotoViewController emulates Apple’s Photos app with all of its flick ‘n pinch delight. You can supply your own “photo sources”, which works similiarly to the data sources used by UITableView. Unlike Apple’s Photos app, it isn’t limited to photos stored locally. Your photos can be loaded from the network, and long lists of photos can be loaded incrementally.
Message composer
TTMessageController emulates the message composer in Apple’s Mail app. You can customize it to send any kind of message you want. Include your own set of message fields, or use the standard “To:” and “Subject:”. Recipient names can be autocompleted from a data source that you provide.
Web image views
TTImageView makes it as easy to display an image as it is in HTML. Just supply the URL of the image, and TTImageView loads it and displays it efficiently. TTImageView also works with the HTTP cache described below to avoid hitting the network when possible.
Internet-aware table view controllers
TTTableViewController and TTTableViewDataSource help you to build tables which load their content from the Internet. Rather than just assuming you have all the data ready to go, like UITableView does by default, TTTableViewController lets you communicate when your data is loading, and when there is an error or nothing to display. It also helps you to add a “More” button to load the next page of data, and optionally supports reloading the data by shaking the device.
Better text fields
TTTextEditor is a UITextView which can grow in height automatically as you type. I use this for entering messages in Facebook Chat, and it behaves similarly to the editor in Apple’s SMS app.
TTPickerTextField is a type-ahead UITextField. As you type it searches a data source, and it adds bubbles into the flow of text when you choose a type-ahead option. I use this in TTMessageController for selecting the names of message recipients.
HTTP disk cache
TTURLRequest is a replacement for NSURLRequest which supports a disk cache (NSURLRequest can only cache in RAM). It has some other nice features too. HTTP posts are as easy as supplying a dictionary of parameters. The TTURL loading system can also be suspended and resumed at any time, which is a great performance helper. Network threads often fight with the UI thread, so you can suspend the network any time your app is momentarily graphically intensive.
URL-based Navigation
TTNavigationCenter is for those grizzled old web developers like myself who want to organize their app by “pages” which can be displayed by visiting a URL.
Your view controllers can simply register URL patterns that they handle, and when those URLs are visited the controllers will be created and displayed. You can also register generic actions that are called when a URL is visited.
TTNavigationCenter also persists and restores the full path of navigation controllers and modal view controllers, so your users can quite the app and come back exactly where they left off.
More details on:
http://github.com/facebook/three202. MajicRank 1.3
Here is a list of the features that this version, 1.3 adds:
* Adds historical graphs
* Stores all archives by AppID
* Reduces file size of stored archives
* Allows entering AppID with search preference over name
* Auto detects and fills in app ID when app name is entered
* Allows re-ordering of apps list
* Fixed a bug where deleting an app while editing it’s title caused a hang
* About box allows resizing, should now be viewable on low-res displays
* Adds latest date run to status text when update is completeMore details on:
http://148apps.biz/majicrank-13-released-adds-historical-graph/3. Facebook connect Library for iPhone
* Seamlessly connect their Facebook account and information with your iPhone app
* Connect and share experiences with friends who also use your iPhone app
* Share user information and actions on your iPhone app with friends on FacebookDetails:
http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php?tab=iphonehttp://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Facebook_Connect_for_iPhone
http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Facebook_Connect_for_iPhone4. MGTwitterEngine ‚ Twitter from Cocoa
MGTwitterEngine is an Objective-C class which lets you integrate Twitter support into your Cocoa application, by making use of the Twitter API. The entire API is covered, and appropriate data is returned as simple native Cocoa objects (NSArrays, NSDictionarys, NSStrings, NSDates and so on), for very easy integration into your own application.
More details on:
http://mattgemmell.com/2008/02/22/mgtwitterengine-twitter-from-cocoa5. Route Me
A slippy map library for the iPhone.
Fast! Completely written in objective-c using CoreAnimation. Runs like the built-in app.
More Details on:
http://code.google.com/p/route-me/6. Core Plot
Core Plot is a plotting framework for Mac OS X and iPhone OS. It provides 2D visualization of data, and is tightly integrated with Apple technologies like Core Animation, Core Data, and Cocoa Bindings.
More details on:
http://code.google.com/p/core-plot/7. RegexKitLite
This document introduces RegexKitLite for Mac OS X. RegexKitLite enables easy access to regular expressions by providing a number of additions to the standard Foundation NSString class. RegexKitLite acts as a bridge between the NSString class and the regular expression engine in the International Components for Unicode, or ICU, dynamic shared library that is shipped with Mac OS X.
* Uses the regular expression engine from the ICU library which is shipped with Mac OS X.
* Automatically caches compiled regular expressions.
* Uses direct access to a strings UTF-16 buffer if it is available.
* Caches the UTF-16 conversion that is required by the ICU library when direct access to a strings UTF-16 buffer is unavailable.
* Small size makes it ideal for use in iPhone applications.
* Multithreading safe.
* 64-bit support.
* Custom DTrace probe points.
* Support for Mac OS X 10.5 Garbage Collection.
* Uses Core Foundation for greater speed.
* Very easy to use, all functionality is provided by a category extension to the NSString class.
* Consists of two files, a header and the Objective-C source.
* Xcode 3 integrated documentation available.
* Distributed under the terms of the BSD License.More details on:
http://regexkit.sourceforge.net/RegexKitLite/8. CHDataStructures.framework
is an open-source library of standard data structures which can be used in any Objective-C program, for educational purposes or as a foundation for other data structures to build on. Data structures in this framework adopt Objective-C protocols that define the functionality of and API for interacting with any implementation thereof, regardless of its internals.
Apple’s extensive and flexible Cocoa frameworks include several collections classes that are highly optimized and amenable to many situations. However, sometimes an honest-to-goodness stack, queue, linked list, tree, etc. can greatly improve the clarity and comprehensibility of code. This framework provides Objective-C implementations of common data structures which are currently beyond the purview of Cocoa.
The abstract data type protocols include:
* CHDeque
* CHHeap
* CHLinkedList
* CHQueue
* CHSearchTree
* CHSortedSet
* CHStackThe concrete subclasses of NSMutableDictionary include:
* CHLockableDictionary
* CHOrderedDictionary
* CHSortedDictionaryThe concrete subclasses of NSMutableSet include:
* CHLockableSet
* CHOrderedSetThe concrete subclasses of CHLockableObject (which don’t have a protocol) include:
* CHMultiDictionary
More Details on:
http://dysart.cs.byu.edu/CHDataStructures/9.ResKit
A library for testing resolution-independent iPhone OS applications.
ResKit simulates varying device screen sizes by resizing and moving your application’s main window. It supports scaling down the simulated device so more of the screen can be seen at once.
Details:http://github.com/jtbandes/reskit/
10.Sintaxi/PhoneGap
PhoneGap is a development tool that allows web developers to take advantage of the core features in the iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Symbian with a unified JavaScript API
API
Device
Exposes properties of the phone, such as its device ID, model, and OS version number.
Location
Gain access to the Latitude / Longitude of the device, and depending on the type of device, the course, speed, and altitude.
Accelerometer
Monitor the accelerometer on the device to detect orientation, shaking and other similar actions.
Contacts
Query the phone addressbook to read the users contacts.
Orientation
Read the device layout orientation, e.g. landscape vs portrait.
Camera
Brings up the camera or photo browser on the phone to allow the user to upload a photo.
Vibrate
Triggers the vibration alert on the phone, if it is supported.
Sound
Play sound files (WAV, MP3, etc).
Telephony
Trigger and activate phone calls.
Details:http://github.com/sintaxi/phonegap/
11.Askit Framework
ASKit is an easy to use library for your iPhone applications. ASKit provides AppStore styled table viewsASKit Overview
- ASTableViewController: Instead of subclassing UITableViewController, you’ll subclass ASTableViewController. This is where most of the work is done.
- ASTableViewCell: This replaces UITableViewCell
- ASHeaderView: Provides the gradient header that you can find when viewing a single app in AppStore
- ASFooterView: This is the footer that AppStore shows your iTunes account in.
- ASInfoCell This extends ASTableViewCell and should be used for various information messages such as “No Items” and “Loading” (it also contains an activity indicator for loading messages
- ASSectionHeaderView: This is for table sections, you must return a view when using ASKit and not a string, otherwise it you won’t have the correct theme.
- ASTableViewCellLabel: Use this instead of UILabel while adding to an ASTableViewCell so the shadows are handled correctly when a cell is selected
Details:http://github.com/enormego/askit/
12.ElementParser
ElementParser is lightweight Cocoa Framework (usable on the iPhone) to provide easy access to XML and HTML content.
Details:http://github.com/Objective3/ElementParser/
13.InAppSettingsKit
This iPhone framework allows settings to be in-app in addition to being in the Settings app
Details:http://github.com/futuretap/InAppSettingsKit/
14.Accelerometer-Helper
Accelerometer utilities for iPhone, including trigger sensitivity and time lockout between events
Hope it helps few, if not all of the aspiring iPhone developers.
The list will be updated as and when we encounter a new useful Open source library!
So keep Track.
Any addition to the list is Welcome!!
This article is credited to mobisoftinfotech.com
Learning Objective-C by examples

My coffee shop thinks im what?
Noticed a note the coffee shop led for me on my takeaway cup this morning.E: doronkatz@mac.com
PH: +61 (0) 410 740 678
SKYPE: doronkatz1981
Amazon Kindle for the Mac (in a way)
Took me a while to figure this out, but looking at some posts around the web, I finally got Kindle for the PC to work on my mac, and until Amazon releases the long-anticipated Mac-compatible version, this is probably the best way. OK, grab yourself a copy of CrossOver for the mac, which is free for 30 days, but otherwise definitely worth buying. It essentially allows you to run Windows apps on your Mac, without needing to install Windows in a Virtualised way, which is great, and means you dont have to use your processing resources loading Windows, just to read a book, right? OK, so once you have it, install it and then install the PC version of the Kindle app. After finishing the installation, there is another trick you need to perform. If you run the Kindle for the PC straight after you will notice that the textboxes are blank/empty, so it's sort of half working but not completely. In order to remedy this, for the bottle you have installed it in, go to Control Panel and winecfg, and then find the app you installed, and opt for it to run under Windows 98. That's it!, you have a fully working Kindle for PC going!
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In the wake of Apple’s sudden decision to 



