Ahead of the Curve | Tom Yager » TAG: Mobile apps

April 16, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Back to the Mac

TAGS: AMD, Apple, Microsoft, Mobile apps, Software Development, iPhone

Several months ago, I determined that my years-long fondness required reexamination. I quietly took a break from the Mac to get some perspective, to check out Vista, AMD, and Longhorn (Windows Server 2008) untainted by Apple's PR and uninfluenced by other journalists and bloggers. I elected to take a break from reviews of new Mac hardware, the occasion of which always piques my interest in Apple's platform. There were times when I felt I'd chosen the worst possible time for this hiatus. I ended up passing on MacBook Air, Time Capsule, Harpertown Mac Pro, and most painful of all, the new MacBook Pro. It was difficult seeing InfoWorld pick up reviews of these from sister publications, but I take my responsibility to readers very seriously. I can't very well counsel you on technology choices if I consider the field limited to one worthwhile player, especially when that player projects the image that it competes only with the generation of systems that preceded what's presently sold.

I found enormous value in my time away from Mac. I made the kind of discoveries I used to make routinely before I took on the Mac as a specialty, and as I take up the Mac again -- which I am doing immediately -- it's clear that my appreciation for the platform is justified, and that the customary split of my effort and attention between Apple and AMD is justified.

The genuine, practical superiority of AMD's Barcelona server platform, and its Phenom desktop platforms that derived from Barcelona, came to light during the break I took from Mac. A one-socket, quad-core Spider (Phenom plus ATI CrossFire graphics) runs Vista so obscenely fast that even a die-hard Mac user's head will turn. Privately, of course.

I found it extremely intriguing that systems built on Phenom platforms can tune themselves autonomously for the maximum possible CPU and GPU speed over a surprisingly broad range, based on a whole system approach that takes cooling, power supply capacity, and your preferences for noise and maximum power consumption into account. I found that I could speed bump an AMD Phenom desktop for free by moving it closer to the floor, where the cooler air prevails. What a grand idea that in itself shows genuine customer-focused insight.

I gained a fresh appreciation for the GNU compiler collection, which has taken remarkable strides since I last took a deep dive in it. I was unaware of the level of engagement from commercial partners, including Apple, AMD, and Novell. Each is undoubtedly pursuing its own agenda, but it does so within the framework and culture of one of the most tightly controlled and liberally licensed open source projects in existence. AMD has finally embarked on the long road to compiler parity with Intel with its contribution of Family 10 (Barcelona/Phenom) architecture-specific optimizations to GNU.

Apple has been busy on the gcc front as well. Objective-C 2.0, with its desperately needed garbage collection, has been a reality in the GNU toolchain since Xcode 3 was in nondisclosure beta. In release 4.2 of gcc, auto-parallelization joins auto-vectorization to adapt projects to multiprocessing and vector acceleration without developer intervention. Unless I'm mistaken, the public beta versions of the iPhone SDK, now at Beta 3, mark Apple's first swing at Microsoft-style free public distribution of pre-release dev tools. The privilege of early access has been reserved for paid members of Apple's Developer Connection programs. That iPhone SDK carries all of the latest GUI tools, documentation, and GNU command-line compilers, including Fortran, into Apple's default distribution. Hit Apple's iPhone Dev Center and scroll to the bottom of the page for the download link. You do not need to pay the $99 fee to register as an iPhone developer to use the new tools, which compile applications for Leopard as well as iPhone.

Apple is getting ever more daring in its engagement with open source in other ways. WebKit, the fast HTML/CSS/SVG rendering and JavaScript engine used in Safari, has caught on like wildfire outside Apple, and why not? To get a commercial browser, loaded with current and emerging standards, free and open for incorporation in your software, is the stuff of fantasy, and Apple holds virtually nothing back. The WebKit project is not strictly Apple's. It enjoys broad community engagement, but it is worked as a priority by Apple's staff, even to the benefit of direct competitors. For example, the browser on Nokia's E-series phones is WebKit-based, and this is not the only example where Apple effectively put its staff and technology to work for the benefit of a competitor. The GNU toolchain's adaptability to multiple embedded platforms will see WebKit in everything from phones to toys, starting with iPhone and iPod Touch. Now that WebKit has been accepted into Google's Summer of Code, I can't wait to see what innovation comes from that gathering. I plan to ply the most influential attendees with the libations of their choice and get their take on where development is headed.

Apple pushed the source code for the publicly exposed innards of OS X Leopard, known as Darwin 9, out for public download on MacOS Forge. Every time it does that, I imagine the move preceded by arguments inside the office about the effort and risks that such a program visits on Apple's platform business. The work of preparing a project of Darwin's size for public distribution is inestimable, and Apple deserves credit for putting it on the agenda of its top OS engineers and project leaders.

I love the conservative approach that Apple is taking with iPhone, especially with regard to multiprocessing. iPhone applications need to launch and quit instantly, yet relaunch after the first execution, having cached and persisted their closing state in detail. It's a freeze/thaw model of state persistence that I'd like to see extended to applications in general. Apple's Xcode has Instruments (prior: xRay), a tool that jams electrodes into your program's and the system's running environment. It records and charts statistical data at runtime along several axes for later examination. It's the most effective means of hand-tuning code for efficiency that I've ever used, and it shows the benefits of persistence quite plainly.

Taking a break from Mac hardware gave me a chance to drink more deeply of the software that Apple maintains off its beaten path. MacPorts and Apple's validated versions of open source projects are open source treasure troves stuffed with some 5,000 free applications tuned and packaged for Intel and PowerPC Macs. Digging through these repositories is so addicting that I had to issue myself an edict to get back to work, which I shall do, newly confident in my mission and purpose. I'm a Macophile for good reason.

Posted by Tom Yager on April 16, 2008 03:00 AM

February 13, 2008 | Comments: (0)

The mobile app gold rush

TAGS: Mobile apps

Adobe, AOL, Google, and Yahoo see smartphones as fertile ground for rich and hosted apps and services

Futurists' dreams of the wearable computer, constantly attached to its wearer and to the world, are realized. As foreseen, that technology has changed culture and, arguably, humanity. Professionals rely on smartphones and PDAs as more than aids to recall and communication.

In metro areas where the reach of coverage and range of services are broadest, mobile technology outmodes itself. Texting? Bah. Now the low bar is HTML-formatted e-mail with Office attachments. Fifteen-second "Hi, mom!" video snapshots have lost their appeal. I watched two hour-long clips from Apple Developer Connection on my Nokia E61i during my recent flight to San Francisco (that was before I got my iPod Touch). Like everyone, I think, I've come to take such things for granted. When I do comparative reviews of devices, I don't rank them according to the presence of advanced capabilities like these, but how well they're implemented. When BlackBerry and Nokia started shipping movie transcoding software with their handsets, it was clear to me that a corner had been turned. A phone that can play a full-length movie won't have trouble with much else.

Now that we're living the future predicted for us, where, through Bluetooth, our brains are attached to computers that keep us constantly connected to each other, one major question remains: Where are the apps and services that mobile platforms enable? In our hurry to get to the future, it seems we've overlooked the basics. Shouldn't our life-changing handsets be able to run programs?

That's a rhetorical question. The problem is not one of device technology, which is abundant. We're not wanting for connectivity now that TCP/IP service goes wherever there is metro cellular voice coverage. The lack of relevant, directly user-facing mobile applications and services can be traced to two roadblocks: platforms and wireless operators.

All modern mobile platforms, with the present exception of iPhone, support custom software development. All device APIs have the essentials such as file systems, multithreading, and access to the TCP/IP stack. The trouble is, each platform has a proprietary approach to interacting with users. One can argue that Java and Series 60 level the field, but the effort required to put up a passable UI using either of these is daunting enough to keep mobile app development a niche rather than a natural extension of common coding skills. The killer professional mobile app is out there somewhere, locked in the imagination of someone who dreamed a mobile dream, downloaded tools from Forum Nokia to try to realize that dream, and decided to go after a more attainable goal, like curing cancer.

The solution to the GUI dilemma is well in hand: HTML. While quality varies, all platforms have competent and improving Web browsers, which holds out the potential to use JavaScript, HTML, and CSS for user interfaces rather than cumbersome and proprietary APIs for text, graphics, motion, and input. Keep in mind as well that JavaScript has facilities for XML parsing, HTTP communication, and Web services. JavaScript performance is laughable on some handsets, but native or Java code fronted by an HTML/CSS/JavaScript GUI would impress and get apps to market faster.

Adobe had a shot at defining an even more appealing common ground with Flash, but it made a strategic decision that brings up the second roadblock to rich mobile apps. Adobe could have made a business of making sure that either the full Flash Player, or the embeddable content player called Flash Lite, runs on everything that moves, just as the desktop Flash Player does now. Flash Player drives sales of Adobe dev tools and back-end servers. Imagine extending that model to millions of devices, and allowing every Flash developer -- and there are so many -- to target phones. Instead of taking Flash to mobile developers and users, Adobe brought the best of Flash to wireless operators who will keep it under lock and key. Must-have features such as widgets and customizable home screens done up in Flash will exist on phones but only as created by wireless operators, who are likely to bill you for your maps and weather just as they charge for ring tones now. Even Apple saw the folly of putting developers at the bottom of the mobile food chain. I never expected Adobe to blaze a new trail in that regard.

It's Adobe's loss; mobile professionals will get what they need, and they'll have a range of sources. Vendors with new initiatives targeting the mobile app gap include AOL, Google, and Yahoo. BlackBerry is reworking its device software to take it in a less specialized direction, giving it a chance to join the rest of the handset population. For every vendor that doesn't get it, there are others who realize that every time you click to view or listen to a video or podcast, or wait for a GPS fix, or pull mail from your inbox, they have an opportunity to insert advertising.

Web 2.0 sites with offline content browsers will let users fill a briefcase with documents and media for portable viewing, content that's downloaded in the background as you do other things with your phone. This futurist proclaims that one day, our wearable computers will work with us and for us in ways that divisions among platforms and sweetheart exclusive deals with wireless operators make difficult to imagine.

Posted by Tom Yager on February 13, 2008 03:00 AM